THE CROWS. 9 



Their young are always liatched blind, helpless, and 

 naked or nearly so ; their nests are usually in a bush or 

 tree, and they live in pairs in the breeding season. They 

 are the most skilful nest-builders of all birds, and the 

 only ones which are commonly accounted sonosters. 

 They bear captivity well, but are iiot so easy to breed in 

 that state as some groups of birds. 



The order is divided into many families, which are not 

 always easy to distinguish, as there are many connectinu- 

 links. 



THE CROWS. 



Birds of the Crow family are usually of a fair size ; the>- 

 have stout bills, garnished with bristly feathers at the 

 root, as may be easily seen in our old friend, the House- 

 Crow. Mail and female are alike, and the young only 

 differ in being duller. 



That grey-headed scoundrel, the House-Crow {Corcus 

 splendens), and the " big black boundhig beggar,"' his 

 jungle relative {Corcus macrorhynclms) need mention 

 only to be condenmed. They will insist on one\s studying 

 their habits, on account of their appalling propensity 

 for mischief ; and for this reason, and because of the fact 

 that they are deadly enemies to the eggs and young of 

 all birds weaker than themselves, they should be ban- 

 ished by all possible means from every bird-lover's 

 garden. 



The Magpies, however, are of a better jal. They have 

 shorter wings, though longer tails, than Crows and are 

 smaller in size ; so, with the best will in the world to 



