60 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



dashed against buildings by the force of the wind, 

 and the havoc among nests and nestlings is very 

 great. 



The only other kind of crow that occurs about 

 Calcutta is the great Indian corbie, Corvus culmin- 

 atus. 1 He is strangely unlike his smaller relative 

 in all his ways, being a solemn, serious- minded 

 bird, quite devoid of levity, and intent on his own 

 material interests in place of always keeping one 

 eye open for chances of wanton mischief and idle 

 amusement. This does not, however, render him 

 a desirable neighbour, for he is always ready to 

 attack any weak or injured animal with his cruel 

 pickaxe of a bill. But his assaults are conducted 

 on strictly utilitarian principles, and do not spring 

 from any aesthetic sense of the beauty of being a 

 nuisance ; they mean business, and it is the desire 

 of food, and not any sense of humour, that prompts 

 them. Corbies are not nearly so common as crows, 

 and are never found in large flocks, but only in 

 pairs or, at utmost, in small parties that never 

 venture far into the town, but haunt the out- 

 lying areas and the suburbs. Wherever the body 

 of a dead animal of any considerable size may 

 chance to lie exposed, one or more corbies are almost 

 sure to be in attendance, along with common crows 



1 Corvus culminatus of Jerdon is C. macrorhyncus of the "Fauna of 

 British India " ; it is a bird considerably larger than C. splendens, and 

 nearly of the size of a rook. 



