552 PASSERIFORMES CHAP, 
the back. A. subalaris fashions a domed bower of sticks and moss, 
with one or two openings, round a shrub which is itself entwined 
with twigs; the centre of the floor shewing a cheese-like mass of 
moss ornamented with flowers and seeds. Sericulus melinus builds i 
run about a foot long on a platform of sticks, composing it of arched 
twigs and decorating it with shells, berries, and leaves. Pti/o- 
rhynchus violaceus makes a like structure of twigs and grass, which 
scarcely meet above, and adorns it with bright feathers ; scattering 
other feathers, bones, shells, rags, berries, and the like over the space 
which Bower-birds habitually clear in front. In Chlamydodera 
nuchalis the similar bower, about three feet long, is lined with 
grasses, a large heap of ornaments lying before each entrance. 
Paradise-birds are shot with blunt arrows, snared, caught in 
nets, in cloths, or with bird-lime ; they have been kept in captivity 
by the Zoological Society of London, and in Italy. 
Fam. XXII: Corvidae.—The Crows and their kin compose a 
fairly uniform tribe, often divided into the Sub-familes Corvinae 
(Crows), Garrulinae (Magpies and Jays), and Fregilinae (Choughs). 
The bill is generally stout and fairly straight, with no dis- 
tinct notch, being very strong in Corvultur and Corvus corax, but 
more or less curved in Gazzola, Microcorax, Macrocorax, Urocissa, 
Garrulus, Callaeas (Glaucopis), Struthidea, and Pyrrhocorax ; while 
in the last-named and Heterocoraz it is exceptionally long and 
slender, and in Nucifraga subulate and of diverse proportions. The 
metatarsus is usually strong; the wings are long and pointed in 
Crows and Choughs, shorter in Jays and Magpies, and decidedly 
rounded in Corcorax, Callaeas, and Struthidea. The variable tail 
is very long and much graduated in Pica, Cyanopica, Urocissa, 
Cryptorhina, Dendrocitta, Crypsirhina, Cissa, and Calocitta, the 
two median rectrices often exceeding the others; but it is usually 
moderate, though at the same time graduated in some Jays. 
Crests occur in Cyanocitta, Platysmurus, Cyanocorax, Uroleuca, 
and Calocitta, those of the last two being recurved, and Calocitta 
having the plumes widened; sometimes the crown-feathers 
are dense and erectile, as in Garrulus. The head of Picathartes 
is bare and yellow, with a broad black patch behind each eye ; 
Gymnocorax shews a large yellowish or whitish naked space on the 
face; the adult Rook (Corvus frugilegus) has whitish skin over 
the forehead, lores, and throat; in C. pastinator the throat is 
feathered. Pica mauritanica has a blue, and the yellow-billed 
