COR 



COR 



of the leaves, rising about four 

 inches high, which support an umbel of 

 flowers, each on a slender short pedicle ; 

 they are of a flesh colour, and spread 

 open like those of the auricula. Native 

 of the Alps, Austria, Silesia, and Siberia, 

 flowering in April and May. C. gmelini 

 resembles the first, though the flowers 

 are much smaller and the calyxes larger ; 

 this is a native of Siberia. 



CORVUS, the crow, in natural history, 

 a genus of birds of the order Piece. Ge- 

 neric character : bill strong, convex, 

 sharp edged ; nostrils covered with brist- 

 ly feathers turned back over them ; 

 tongue cartilaginous and divided ; toes 

 three forward and one backward, the 

 middle one joined to the outer as far as 

 the first joint. The greater number of 

 this tribe of birds are to be found in al- 

 most every country, and they are distin- 

 guishable by being gregarious, noisy, and 

 prolific ; by being in general promiscu- 

 ous feeders upon animal and vegetable 

 Substances, and by laying six eggs in 

 nests built in trees. Some naturalists 

 reckon 41 species ; Gmelin, however, 

 specifies 48. Those most entitled to at- 

 tention are the following. 



C. corax, the raven. This is the larg- 

 est species of the genus, and weighs 

 three pounds, and measures in length 

 two feet, and in breadth four. It inhabits, 

 in the old continent, from Greenland to 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and in the new, 

 from Canada to Mexico. It will destroy 

 many animals, such as chickens, ducks, 

 and rabbits, and sometimes even lambs,, 

 for subsistence, but appears to delight 

 more in the putrid remains of carcases, 

 which are to be almost every where met 

 with on a globe perpetually changing its 

 inhabitants. It may, in this point of 

 view, be regarded as highly serviceable, 

 preventing the contagion of disease in a 

 great degree, as well as the annoyance 

 of the senses. Its smell is particularly 

 acute, enabling it to discriminate its fa- 

 vourite repast, though at a great dis- 

 tance. Its caution is also extraordinary, 

 as it will rarely venture within the reach 

 of a gun, which it appears to distinguish 

 with particular sagacity. It is long lived, 

 having been stated on respectable autho- 

 rity to live from 40 to 60 years. It is easi- 

 ly familiarized, but is much addicted to 

 concealing, in holes and bye places, 

 things of no possible advantage to itself, 

 and which the owner is much embarrass- 

 ed by the want of. It may be taught to 

 speak. In America it builds in trees ; in 

 some other countries it builds in the 

 holes of rocks ; th.^ duty of incubation is 



performed by the male during the day, 

 and by the female in the night. The 

 Greenlanders make use of it for food, 

 and use its skin in the manufacture of 

 garments, and its wings for brushes. Its 

 feathers are split by them, and twisted, 

 into fishinglines. The raven is the only 

 species of its genus at present existing in 

 Greenland, which may be considered as 

 an evidence of its robust and hardy con- 

 stitution. In times of superstition, this 

 was a bird of most important augury, 

 whose sounds were studied with the most 

 profound attention, and frequently over- 

 whelmed even the hero himself with tef- 

 ror. See Aves, Plate IV. fig. 4. 



C. corone, the carrion crow, is very si- 

 milar to the raven in habits and colour ; 

 it is the bird so universally known in the 

 United States by the name of crow. 



C. frugilegus, the rook. Rooks are, in 

 France and some parts of Germany, birds 

 of passage, but in England they are sta- 

 tionary. They live upon various worms 

 and the erucae of insects, particularly 

 those of the chafer, the extirpation of 

 which is of extreme service to the far- 

 mer, and far more than compensates for 

 the depredations committed by those 

 birds themselves on the corn, which they 

 thus usefully preserve from far more de- 

 structive plunder. Rooks are gregarious 

 birds, and, unless when breeding, regu- 

 larly repair, sometimes in immense 

 flocks, from the place where they roost- 

 ed to whatever spot of ground they may 

 fix upon as their grand refectory, return- 

 ing as the day closes in the same formida- 

 ble body to their former lodging. In 

 February they begin to build their nests-, 

 which they do in large societies of many 

 hundreds on the tops of high trees, par- 

 ticularly elms. To the curious observer 

 this process is a scene of considerable in- 

 terest, exhibiting perpetual bustle and as- 

 siduity, incessant struggle and conten- 

 tion, stratagem and violence. Cunning 1 

 and oppression are in perpetual conflict, 

 art is often successfully substituted for 

 strength, and more frequently power for 

 right. It is a circumstance within the 

 recollection of several persons at New- 

 castle, England, that a pair of rooks, who 

 had been interrupted in various efforts to 

 build in a neighbouring rookery, at length 

 actually established their nest on the 

 weather-vane of the spire of the ex- 

 change, and produced their young to 

 perfection, notwithstanding all the per- 

 secutions of their enemies, all the cla- 

 morous admiration of the populace, and 

 the movements which they experienced 

 from every shifting- breeze of wind. So 



