CORVUS. 127 



with clay mixed with tufts of grass. The eggs, 4 5 in number, are a ]:iK- 

 green, blotched and spotted with darker and lighter patches of yellowish and 

 greenish brown. As among the ravens and crows, pied varieties are not 

 uncommon. 



Gen. CorvUS- Lin. 



Bill straight, large, compressed, a little swollen laterally, convex and curved 

 towards the point, its edges cutting. Nostrils in a more or less distinct groove 

 covered by bristly plumes, the space between the tips of which and the eye is 

 less than the uncovered portion of the bill. 



122. CorVTIS COrax, Linn. S. N. i. p. 155 ; Tern. Man. de. Orn. i. 

 107 ; Parrel! , Dr. JB . i. p. 498 ; Jcrd., B. Ind. ii. p. 293 ; Sir. F. vi p. 63. 

 The RAVEN or GREAT CORBIE CROW. 



PLATE. 



Above glossy steel black, the feathers greyish at base ; wings duller 

 and with bronze reflections, their coverts and the secondary quills purplish at 

 base, the secondaries purplish externally. Primaries steel black ; tail purplish, 

 the two outer tail feathers nearly steel black ; head like the upper surface of 

 body; face, and the long lanceolate hackles silky black, glossed with a 

 purplish brown. Entire under surface of body glossy blue-black, shaded with 

 purple ; bill and legs black ; irides brown. 



Length. 2,2 to 25 inches; oilmen 2-9 to 3^4 ; wings 165 to 16*6 ; tail 10 

 to i \'2 ; tarsus 2*5 to 2'8. 



Hab. The whole of Europe, Northern and Central Asia, North America, 

 and Mexico, ranging into Cashmere, N.-W. Himalayas, Upper Sind, Punjab, 

 and Afghanistan, as a migrant. Morris says its geographical distribution is 

 soon told. He is a citizen of the world (barring the greater part of M*a). 

 His sable plumage reflects the burning sun of the Equator and his shadow 

 falls upon the regions of perpetual snow ; he alights on the jutting peak of the 

 most lofty mountain and haunts the centre of the most untrodden plain, 

 " No ultima thule," is a terra incognita to him. He is known since 

 the day of Noah as a deserter, and there is scarcely a worse-abused scavenrer 

 in the present day. Although fulfilling its place in the economy of Nature, it 

 is quite partial to poultry, lambs, rabbits, and the like. 



Of its nidification, Morris says it commences about January. Incubation 

 20 days. Nest composed of the same materials as those used by the preceding 

 species, and all crows. Eggs, 4 7 in number, of a bluish green colour, 

 blotched with stains of darker or brown. 



123. CorvUS umbrimiS, (Hedenb.) Sundev. (Efv. K. vet. Akad. Fork. 

 Stockh. 1838, p. 199; (ex Hedenb. Ms.)', Heugl. Orn. N. O. A/r. pp. 505, 

 125 ; Shelley, B. Egypt, p. 158; Dresser, B. Eur, pi. xxxiv., xxxviii. ; Blf. 



