File:Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of (14564352407).jpg

Identifier: keytonorthameric01coue (find matches)
Title: Key to North American birds. Containing a concise account of every species of living and fossil bird at present known from the continent north of the Mexican and United States boundary, inclusive of Greenland and lower California, with which are incorporated General ornithology, an outline of the structure and classification of birds, and Field ornithology, a manual of collecting, preparing, and preserving birds
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Coues, Elliott, 1842-1899
Subjects: Birds -- North America Birds -- Collection and preservation
Publisher: Boston, D. Estes and Company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
3.00.Varies much in size. Greenland, Labrador, and boreal or arctic specimens generally, are ofgreat size, witli immense bill averaging 3.00 (in the so-called var. principalis). The billis usually longer and relatively less deep in the American than in the European Raven(^corax proper) ; whole bird more sturdy and robust. The usual wing-formula is: primary4>.3 = 5>2>6>1^8; but these quills grow and moult so gradually the proportionateleugtlis differ much in specimens examined. 9 i^ indistinguishable from ^, though averagingsmaller. N. Am. ; but now rare in the U. S. east of the Mississippi, and altogetlier wantingin most localities; Labrador, ranging southward, rarely, along the coast and in mountainousregions to the Middle districts, casually even to South Carolina, Georgia, and A.labama; veryabundant in the West, where the sable plume and the bleaching skeleton, the ominous croak andthe Indian war-whoop, are not entirely things of the past. Wherever in the West the Raven
Text Appearing After Image:
Head of a very large American Raven, nat. size. (Ad. nat. del. C.) abounds, the Crow seems to bo supplanted. Nests sometimes in trees, but as a rule on cliffsor in other rocky places, selecting the most inaccessible sites. Eggs 4-8, oftener 5 or 6, about2.00 X J.30 on an average, ranging from 1.60 X 1-25 to 2.35 X 1-50, though sucli extremesof length are rare ; the color is pale green, often shaded with drab or (dive, and the whole sur-face is profusely dotted, blotched, and clouded with neutral tints, purplisli, and various shadesof brown. Regarding the vexed question of relationship of the American to the European Raven, Ihave throughout successive eds. of the Key, and in other works, since 1872, contended againstspecific distinction; and I observe tliat the two forms are united in one by such high autliorityas that of Dr. Sharpe, in the British Museum Cat. iii, 1877, p. 14. But we may have gonetoo far in ignoring some differences, particularly in average size, which appear to exist

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