Corvus and Cornix. 237 



state, and uttering admonitory croaks from the 

 hollow holm-oak ? If we consult dictionaries we 

 shall learn that comix is the Crow or Rook, "a 

 smaller bird than corvus" Where did the diction- 

 aries get this authority for making confusion 

 worse confounded ? If Virgil distinguished corvus 

 and comix, and if corvus is the rook, then cornix 

 must be the crow or the raven, and in fact the 

 word probably stands for both. I should incline 

 on the whole to the raven, seeing that at the 

 present day it is much the commoner bird of the 

 two in Italy. Alpine choughs and jackdaws are 

 not wont to stalk about alone ; and though the 

 larger chough (our Cornish chough) might do so, 

 and is to be found in the mountain districts of 

 Italy, he cannot well be the bird generally under- 

 stood by cornix. Could a chough learn to talk 

 with his long thin red bill ? But Pliny knew of 

 a talking cornix ; " while I was engaged upon this 

 book," he says, " there was in Rome a cornix from 

 the south-west of Spain, belonging to a Roman 

 knight, which was of an amazingly pure black, 

 and could say certain strings of words, to which it 

 frequently added new ones." 



