PASSERINE. 



133 



Corvus pica, Lin. (The Magpie of Europe.) A beautiful bird, of a silky 

 black colour, with purple, blue, and gold reflections ; the belly is white, and 

 there is a large spot of the same colour on the wing. Its eternal chattering 

 has rendered it notorious. 



GARRULUS, Cuvier. 



The two mandibles of the Jays are but little elongated, terminating in a 

 sudden, and nearly equal curve; when ,the tail is cuneiform it is not very 

 long, and the loose and the slender feathers of the for eheadstand more or less 

 erect when the bird is angry. 



CARYOCATACTES, Cuvier. 



The Nutcrackers have the two mandibles straight, equally pointed, and 

 without any curve. There is only one species known. 



Corvus caryocatactes, Lin. (The common Nutcracker.) Brown; the whole 

 body spotted with white. It builds in the hollows of trees, in dense moun- 

 tain forests, climbs trees and perforates their bark like the Woodpeckers ; feeds 

 on all kinds of fruit, insects, and small birds. 



CORACIAS, Linnaeus. 



The Rollers have a strong beak, compressed near the point, which is a little 

 hooked. The nostrils are oblong, placed at the edge of the feathers, but with- 

 out being covered by them ; the feet short and stout. They belong to the 

 eastern continent, and are like the Jays in their habits and in the loose feathers 

 on the forehead. Their colours are vivid, but rarely harmonious. 



PARADIS^EA, Linnaeus. 



The Birds of Paradise, like the Crows, have a strong, straight, compressed 

 beak, without any emarginations, and with covered nostrils ; 

 but the influence of the climate they inhabit, an influence 

 extended to birds of several other genera, gives a velvet 

 tissue to the feathers which cover these nostrils, and fre- 

 quently a metallic lustre, at the same time that it singularly developes those 

 which cover several parts of the body. They are natives of New Guinea and 

 of the adjoining islands, are said to live on fruits, and to be particularly fond 

 of aromatics. 



The feathers on the flanks of some of them are silky, and singularly ex- 

 tended into bunches longer than the body, which give such a hold to the wind 

 that they are very often swept away by it. There are also two bearded fila- 

 ments adhering to the rump, which are as long and sometimes even longer 

 than the feathers on the flanks. 



P. apoda, Lin. Size of a thnish ; maronne ; top of the head and neck yellow; 

 circumference of the beak and throat of an emerald green. It is the male of 

 this species which is ornamented with those long bundles of yellowish feathers 

 employed by the ladies as plumes. 



