No comparison of this bird is required with the Fish Crow, which has the middle toe and claw longer than the tarsus, not shorter, and the proportions much less.
Habits. The common resident Crow of Florida exhibits so many peculiarities differing from the northern species, that Professor Baird, in his Birds of America, deemed it worthy of mention at least as a race, if not a distinct species. We have no account of its habits, and do not know if, in any respects, they differ from those of the common Crow. Dr. J. C. Cooper, in his brief manuscript notes on the birds of Florida, made in the spring of 1859, speaks of the Florida Crow as very common, as being quite maritime in its habits, and as having full-fledged young on the 20th of April. Three eggs of this race, obtained in Florida in the spring of 1871, by Mr. Maynard, differ not more from those of the Crow than do those of the latter occasionally from one another. They measure 1.73 by 1.20 inches; 1.70 by 1.20; and 1.54 by 1.25. Their ground-color is a bright bluish-green, and they are all more or less marked, over the entire egg, with blotches of a mingled bronze and brown with violet shadings. The latter tints are more marked in one egg than in the others, and in this the spots are fewer and more at one end, the larger end being nearly free from markings. Their average capacity, as compared with the average of the C. americanus, is as 5.1 to 4.2.
Corvus caurinus, Baird.
NORTHWESTERN FISH CROW.
Corvus caurinus, Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 569, pl. xxiv.—Cooper & Suckley, 211, pl. xxiv.—Dall & Bannister, Trans. Chicago Acad. I, 1869, 286 (Alaska).—Finsch, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 41 (Alaska).—Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 285.
Sp. Char. Fourth quill longest; fifth and third about equal; second longer than sixth; first shorter than ninth. Color black, glossed with purple. Tail nearly even. Tarsus longer than middle toe and claw. Length about 16.50; wing about 11.00; tail about 7.00.
Hab. Northwestern coast, from Columbia River to Sitka.
This species is readily distinguished from the eastern Fish Crow by the larger size; the absence of green gloss on the belly; the tarsi longer than the middle toe and claw, instead of shorter; and the second quill being generally shorter than the sixth instead of longer, and considerably shorter than the culmen, instead of longer.
It is rather to be compared with C. americanus, with which it agrees in colors, but from which it differs, essentially, in having the wing and tail very much shorter, while the bill is considerably longer, and in having the tarsus shorter than the culmen, instead of longer, as in all the other North American species. In this last respect it agrees with C. mexicanus (see synopsis, p. 829) of Western Mexico; in this, however, the color and proportions are entirely different.
Habits. This species appears to be confined to the seaboard of the Pacific, from Alaska to California inclusive. Smaller than the common Crow, in its more essential features it closely resembles that bird, while in all its habits it appears the exact counterpart of the Fish Crow, from which it is specifically and essentially distinct.