CORVID.E. 437 



parts and back are a delicate peach-blossom red ; wings and 

 tail, brownish-black ; head, neck, and breast, black, glossed with 

 violet and green — the male adorned with a long pendant crest ; 

 iris, brown. The young, greyish-brown, like young starlings. 

 It was classed in three genera — Gracula, Sturnus, and Turdus 

 — until separated by Temminck into the genus Pastor. 

 Macgillivray gives it still another generic name — Thremma- 

 philus — which means cattle and friend, for it follows cattle and 

 perches on their backs to pick the acari and ticks from their 

 skin. When classed with the thrushes it was Turdus roseus ; 

 with the starlings, Sturnus roseus. No bird is so much 

 identified with the rose as this. It is called Turdus roseus, 

 Sturnus roseus, Pastor roseus, Merula rosea — Merle colour de 

 rose, Martin roselin, Roseate cow-bird, Rose-coloured thrush, &c. 

 I suppose it began by Ray and Linna3us classing it amongst 

 the thrushes, and calling it rosea and roseus. 



Family III. — Corvim:. (Leach.) 



Through our broken chain of British birds I jump from the 

 rose-coloured pastor of Temminck, or rose-coloured thrush of 

 Linnaeus, to the true typical pastor, or parson of birds, parson 

 rook — the crow — at whose head, " on a bust of Pallas," as Edgar 

 Poe has it, stands the croaking raven. The first family of this 

 conirostral or thick-billed tribe of birds began with the 

 Fringillidce (including the finches) ; the second, the Sturnidce 

 (the starlings) ; but as the crow-blackbirds, genus Quiscalus, 

 which forms a link between the starlings and crows, are 

 awanting — besides other five minor groups in Britain — we must 

 be content with the crows, the pies, the choughs, and the jays. 

 Their bill is like a cone, strong and powerful, with sharp 

 cutting edges. The legs and feet also strong, as well adapted 

 for walking as perching — in which respect they are entitled to 

 the name of Vagatores or wanderers. And, regarding food, they 

 are as well named omnivorous — all-eating — as they feed as 

 readily upon animal as on vegetable food. Like man himself 

 nothing comes amiss to the crows, and notwithstanding their 

 sombre garb are amongst the most perfectly organised of birds. 

 Their digestive organs enable them to get nutriment from a 

 great variety of substances, as their stomach is intermediate 



