298 Mathews. A itsii'a/iau Crows. [,st a".,! 



Victoria, South South Austraha, South -west AustraHa, Tasmania ; 

 Corvus coronoides hennetti (North), North Oueenshmd, and North 

 and North-west New South Wales ; Corvus coronoides cecilcs 

 (Mathews), Northern Territory, North-west Austraha, Mid-west 

 Austraha, South-west Austraha. As synonym of C. c. coronoides 

 (V. & H.), he only allows C. mariance (Mathews), whereas Ogilvie- 

 Grant had included C. c. perplexus, C. mariancB (Mellori), C. in. 

 halmaturinus and C. m. tasmanicus. This means that Ogilvic- 

 Grant's Corvus coronoides (V. & H.) is exactly equivalent to Strese- 

 mann's C. c. coronoides and C. c. perplexus. Stresemann, however, 

 only includes C. m. tasmanicus with a (?), as it may be a distinct 

 form. Stresemann's C. c. hennetti . is not North's nor Ogivie- 

 Grant's species, but is exactly my C. hennetti queenslandicus. 

 Stresemann had no topotypical specimens of C. hennetti and 

 thought Moolah was in North-west New South Wales, so that he 

 could call the distinct Queensland form by North's name. 

 Then Stresemann's C. c. cecilcs is not exactly equal to Ogilvie- 

 Grant's C. cecilcs as he rejects C. b. queenslandicus and includes 

 C. hennetti honhoti, which Ogilvie-Grant had decided was a 

 synonym of C. hennetti. 



Whether my attempt " led to confusion," as Ogilvie-Grant 

 stated, time will tell ; but from a comparison of the two pre- 

 ceding results, my own treatment is much nearer the truth. 



The facts are simple. All the northern birds have white bases 

 to the feathers, the southern ones dusky ; while there is a small 

 white-based interior form which, according to Australian Field 

 Ornithologists, lives along with, and is entirely distinct from, the 

 southern dark-based form. According to my reading of the facts, 

 each is separable into geographical scries, but on account of lack 

 of variation in colour, dimensions are alone a^'ailable, and they 

 may intergrade. 



The separation of New South Wales birds by Sti'esemann as a 

 valid sub-species, C. c. coronoides, on account of large size is cor- 

 rect, but his measurements were made incorrectly, as he included 

 moulting birds, and then averaged the measurement, which is 

 absurd. Thus in the case of C. c. perplexus he cites Victorian 

 specimens as having wing lengths of 312, 322, &c. Normantown 

 birds as 315, 315, &c., and Perth 315. In these cases the wing 

 had not fully grown and its measurement should not have been 

 used in connection with averaging figures. 



This is truly shown under C. c. hennetti, where he gives the 

 figures of a long series of Cape York birds, collected by Kemp 

 for me for the very purpose of settling the question of forms of 

 these birds. He cites 292-353, giving an average of 322, but a 

 larger number of the'se specimens had not the ^\•ing feathers fully 

 grown. 



Stresemann lumped all the Crows from India to Japan and 

 through Australia as one species, with a wing length varying 

 from 270-380, and bill from 44-69 mm., figures which speak 

 for themselves. 



