552 PASSERIFORMES CHAP. 



the back. A. subalaris fashions a domed bower of sticks and moss, 

 with one or two openings, round a shrub which is itself entwined 

 with twigs; the centre of the floor shewing a cheese-like mass of 

 moss ornamented with flowers and seeds. Sericulus melinus builds a 

 run about a foot long on a platform of sticks, composing it of arched 

 twigs and decorating it with shells, berries, and leaves. Ptilo- 

 rJiynchus violaceus makes a like structure of twigs and grass, which 

 scarcely meet above, and adorns it with bright feathers ; scattering 

 other feathers, bones, shells, rags, berries, and the like over the space 

 which Bower-birds habitually clear in front. In Chlamydodera 

 nuchalis the similar bower, about three feet long, is lined with 

 grasses, a large heap of ornaments lying before each entrance. 



Paradise-birds are shot with blunt arrows, snared, caught in 

 nets, in cloths, or with bird-lime ; they have been kept in captivity 

 by the Zoological Society of London, and in Italy. 



Fam. XXIII. Corvidae, The Crows and their kin compose a 

 fairly uniform tribe, often divided into the Sub-families Cormnae 

 (Crows), Garrulinae (Magpies and Jays), and Fregilinae (Choughs). 



The bill is generally stout and fairly straight, with no dis- 

 tinct notch, being very strong in Corvultur and Corvus corax, but 

 more or less curved in Gazzola, Microcorax, Macrocorax, Urocissa, 

 Garrulus, Callaeas (Glaucopis), Struthidea, and Pyrrhocorax ; while 

 in the last-named and Heterocorax it is exceptionally long and 

 slender, and in Nucifraga subulate and of diverse proportions. The 

 metatarsus is usually strong ; the wings are long and pointed in 

 Crows and Choughs, shorter in Jays and Magpies, and decidedly 

 rounded in Corcorax, Callaeas, and Struthidea. The variable tail 

 is very long and much graduated in Pica, Cyanopica, Urocissa, 

 Cryptorliina, Dendrocitta, Crypsirhina, Cissa, and Calocitta, the 

 two median rectrices often exceeding the others ; but it is usually 

 moderate, though at the same time graduated in some Jays. 



Crests occur in Cyanocitta, Platysmurus, Cyanocorax, Uroleuca, 

 and Calocitta, those of the last two being recurved, and Calocitta 

 having the plumes widened ; sometimes the crown -feathers 

 are dense and erectile, as in Garrulus. The head of Picathartes 

 is bare and yellow, with a broad black patch behind each eye ; 

 Gymnocorax shews a large yellowish or whitish naked space on the 

 face ; the adult Eook (Corvus frugilegus) has whitish skin over 

 the forehead, lores, and throat ; in C. pastinator the throat is 

 feathered. Pica mauritanica has a blue, and the yellow-billed 



