THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



L THE CROW. 



" Even the blackest of them all, the Crow." Longfellow. 

 BLACK though he is, the Crow may fairly head the list 

 for more reasons than one. His clan is reckoned by most 

 ornithologists as the most blue-blooded among the birds, 

 and comes first in the order of precedence in the official 

 list in the " Fauna of British India." And he himself , 

 full no doubt of consciousness of his egregious merits, has 

 already made his bow to all my readers, even if they have 

 resided in India but for a day. Various people have 

 amused themselves at the expense of naturalists who 

 call him Corvus svlendens, but it would be hard to find a 

 better name. See him, as I first saw him, in the London 

 Zoo among a number of other species of his kind, and you 

 will at once pronounce him the sleekest, glossiest, and 

 best got-up fellow of the lot, for most of his upper plumage 

 has an exquisite satiny gloss of purple and green, admirably 

 set off by his grey neck and coal-black mask and cap. In 

 this pattern of colour, as well as in size, he certainly very 

 much recalls the jackdaw (Corvus monedula) at home, but 

 he has a very much longer arid heavier bill, and dark 

 instead of white eyes. The difference between the two 

 species may be at once noticed even in the mounted speci- 

 F, BC 1 



