€8 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



inlets and harbours. Their nests are often so plentiful as to form regular 

 rookeries on the islands ; they are constructed of dry grass and sea-weed^ 

 and contain from two to three greenish olive-tinted eggs covered with black 

 or yellowish-brown markings, but both the ground colour and markings are 

 very variable. The Silver Gull has a wide range along the coasts of Australia,, 

 Tasmania, and New Caledonia, and also has the uncommon habit, for a sea 

 bird, of going far inland to lakes arid swamps, where it seems perfectly at 

 home with the wild fowl. I remember first seeing these birds at Lake 

 Charm, in the Swan Hill district, Victoria, about 170 miles from the 

 nearest ocean beach. Kept as garden pets Silver Gulls become very tame,, 

 and hunt over the ground for noxious insects, snails, and slugs. 



The Crow {Corone australis Gould). 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 475, No. 290 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 188, No. 389. 



The family Corvidce comprises a number of large birds, popularly known 

 as Ravens, Crows, and Choughs, which at one time were all included in the 

 typical genus Corvus. They are distinguished by a stout compressed beak^ 

 straight at the base, arched towards the point, and straight at the edges. 

 The wings and tail are long and graduated, the feet powerful, with the 

 metatarsus exceeding in length the middle toe of the foot. The sexes are 

 similar in colour, usually black and more or less glossed with green or purple 

 tints, except in the Jackdaw and Hooded Crow. Representatives of the 

 genus are found in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America as far south as. 

 Mexico, and Australia. Thus widely distributed over the world, they can 

 stand all conditions of climate from the snow-clad mountains of Northern 

 Scotland to the sun-dried plains of central Australia. 



Though the Australian bushman looks upon our birds as the one species 

 under the popular and comprehensive name of Crow or Carrion Crow,, 

 among ornithologists there has always been a considerable amount of un- 

 certainty and difiFerence of opinion regarding their classification. In describ- 

 ing our species, Gould, in his " Birds of Australia," called it Corvus coronoides,. 

 but in his Handbook issued later on he changed it to Corvus australis, 

 White-eyed Crow, and, though noting the Hazel-eyed Crow, considered 

 it only a variety of the typical form. He says : " It is intermediate 

 in size, in the development of the feathers of the throat, in its voice, in 

 many parts of its economy, between the Carrion Crow and the Raven in our 

 island (England), and it is difficult to say to which of these species it is 

 most nearly allied." 



Since Gould's time, modern ornithologists have decided that though the 

 specific differences are vague, we have not only two species — -the Crow and 

 Raven— but they belong to different genera. Campbell, in his " Nests and 

 Eggs of Australian Birds," says there still exists some uncertainty about 

 identifying or separating our two species of crow, or the Crow from the 

 Raven. But if the chief points as first mentioned by Dr. Ramsay as far back 



