302 CORVID^E. 



Coming nearer home, it is very numerous in Belgium, and 

 would be so, according to Mr. Labouchere, but for the perse- 

 cution it suffers, in Holland. In Denmark it is a summer- 

 visitant, and throughout Northern Germany it is more or less 

 abundant though its settlements are often wide apart. 



The anterior part of the beak is black ; in the adult its 

 base, the forehead, lores, chin and throat are bare, the skin 

 being scabrous, and whitish-grey : the irides dark-brown : 

 the whole plumage black, richly glossed with purple on the 

 upper parts, but particularly on the head and neck, the 

 feathers of which are soft and decomposed, while none 

 are pointed ; the lower surface of the wing- and tail -quills 

 shining dark greyish-black : legs, toes and claws, black. 



The Book varies considerably in size, the whole length of 

 a male being from eighteen to twenty-one inches : that here 

 described being nineteen inches and a half ; from the carpal 

 joint to the tip of the longest primary, twelve inches and a 

 quarter ; the first primary three inches shorter than the 

 second ; the second an inch shorter than the fourth, which 

 is as much longer than the third as that is than the fifth. 



The female is frequently, in her whole length, two inches 

 shorter than the male, and her plumage is less brilliant. 



Young birds of the year resemble the adult ; but their 

 plumage has little gloss, and the base of the beak, the face 

 and throat are feathered until the first moult, after which 

 they generally become bare, though examples, especially if 

 kept in confinement, sometimes retain the clothing of these 

 parts for a year or more. 



White and other varieties of the Kook occur as often as 

 of most other species. Such as arise simply from want of 

 colour, due probably to defective secretions which are often 

 supplied as the bird gains constitutional strength, need not 

 be here noticed; but some examples occasionally appear 

 which seem to claim more attention. Hunt mentions 

 (Br. Orn. ii. p, 39) one "of a light ash-colour, most beauti- 

 fully mottled all over with black, and the quill and tail 

 feathers elegantly barred." Examples with light spots at 

 the end of the feathers have been noticed by Mr. Jenyns and 



