vii CORVIDAE 



55, 



P. nuttaUi a yellow, ear-patch ; Cissa a fleshy vermilion orbital 

 outgrowth ; CaUaeas an orange rictal wattle with blue base in 

 one species, a blue wattle in the other. 



This Family occupies nearly all the globe, except the Australian 

 Eegion east of the Sandwich Islands, New Caledonia, and New 

 Zealand ; while the members are less plentiful in America, and 

 from Panama to Uruguay only a few genera akin to the Jay 

 occur. The sexes are similar, the young usually duller. 



True Crows are generally black with a purplish or greenish 

 gloss, and frequently with white at the base of the feathers ; 

 some, however, are browner, while the silvery-grey hind-neck of 

 the Jackdaw and the grey back and lower parts of the " Hooded " 

 Crow are well known. The Chinese Corvus torquatus and the 

 Ethiopian C. scapulatus have white collars behind, and white on 

 the breast ; in Gazzola of Celebes that colour extends further ; but 

 the African Corvultur has the white collar only. The throat 

 sometimes exhibits hackles, and in the Antillean Microcorax leuco- 

 gnaphalus the feathers have hair-like extremities. Our visitor the 

 Nutcracker {Nucifraga caryocatactes) is brown, with whitish dorsal 

 and pectoral spots, and blackish quills ; three or four other species 

 of the genus, with most variable bills, inhabit conifer woods in the 

 Palaearctic Region ; and a near ally {Picicorvus columhianus) those of 

 the western Eocky Mountains. Choughs(P?/r'rAocoraa:;), which occur 

 in the Palaearctic and the extreme north of the Ethiopian Eegion, 

 are glossy black, with brilliant red feet, and red or yellow bill. 



Pica rustica, the well-known Magpie, needs no description, 

 nor do its black and white congeners, P. mauritanica, distin- 

 guished by a naked blue spot behind the eye, and P. mittcdli 

 with this spot and the beak yellow. P. rustica extends through 

 the Palaearctic Eegion, and reaches Formosa and North America ; 

 the other species are found respectively in Algeria and Morocco 

 and in California. Platysviurus aterrimus of Borneo, and Tem- 

 nurus truncatus of Cochin China are instances of uniform glossy 

 black forms in this section ; Psilorliinus, from the centre of 

 America, is a dull brown Jay. Cyanopica coohi, of Southern 

 Spain, represented in Eastern Asia and Japan by C. cyana, is a blue 

 Magpie, having cobalt wings and tail, an ashy body, and a black 

 head ; while the Indo-Chinese and Sumatran genus, Dendrocitta, 

 shews brown, orange, buff, and grey tints, mingled with lilack and 

 usually white. Cissa contains three species from India, Burma, 



