CROWS. 



523 



Mr. Forbes hns rccejitly describud some ])eciilinrities of its stnictnro, especially 

 that of the trachea, from a s]iecimen which died in the Zoological Gardens at London, 

 but want of sjiace prevents us from further remarks. 



At first thought, the step from the glory we have described above to the family 

 that has taken its name from the crow — the Cokvid.e — seems rather sudden. But 

 a little closer insi)ection of the structure of these birds, and a little knowledge of the 





^''f^7i.; 



FlO. 257. — Nac'^fraga caryocatactu, spotted nut-cracker ; Perimreus ir\faustns, Siberian jay. 



more brilliantly colored of the so-called crows will soon convince us that the birds-of- 

 Paradisc and the sagacious but scavcngcr-duty-performing ravens and crows are not 

 so very distantly related. 



This family is cosino](olitan, though not occurring in New Zealand, and rather 

 sparingly represented in the Australian region. If the western and the eastern 

 hemisiihcres of the globe be c(>mi>areil, it will l)e founil that nearly two thirds of the 

 species belong to the latter. It is an important fact that no member of the restricted 



