THE CROWS. 



Their young are always hatched blind, helpless, and 

 naked or nearly so ; their nests are usally in a bush or 

 tree, and they live in pairs in the breeding season. They 

 are the most skilful nest-builders of all birds, and the 

 only ones which are commonly accounted songsters. 

 They bear captivity well, but are not so easy to breed in 

 that state as some groups of birds. 



The order is divided into many families, which are not 

 always easy to distinguish, as there are many connecting 

 links. 



THE CROWS. 



Birds of the Crow family are usually of a fair size ; they 

 have stout bills, garnished with bristly feathers at the 

 root, as may be easily seen in our old friend, the House- 

 Crow. Mail and female are alike, and the young only 

 differ in being duller. 



That grey-headed scoundrel, the House-Crow (Corvus 

 splendens), and the ' ' big black bounding beggar," his 

 jungle relative (Corvus macrorhynchus) need mention 

 only to be condemned. They will insist on one's 

 studying their habits, on account of their appalling pro- 

 pensity for mischief ; and for this reason, and because of 

 the fact that they are deadly enemies to the eggs and 

 young of all birds weaker than themselves, they should 

 be banished by all possible means from every bird- 

 lover's garden. 



The Magpies, however, are of a better jot. They have 

 shorter wings, though longer tails, than Crows and are 

 smaller in size ; so, with the best will in the world to 



