420 CORVUS 



tinged with slate-grey ; nape, hind-neck, and sides of the neck white, with 

 a greyish tinge ; bill and legs black ; iris nearly white. Culmen V3 r 

 wing 9'0, tail 5 '2, tarsus 1*9 inch. The female has the neck greyer and 

 darker, and the young are duller in colour, the under parts greyer, and 

 the grey on the neck much darker and duller. 



Hal. The whole of Europe up to 63 or 64 N. Lat. ; ranging 

 into Western Siberia, Afghanistan, Kashmir, N.W. Punjab, and 

 even to Tibet ; North Africa ; a straggler to the Canaries. 



'In habits the Jackdaw is lively, noisy, and cheerful, essentially 

 gregarious, being almost always to be met with in companies or 

 associating with Rooks. Where unmolested it is extremely 

 tame, but where there is any sign of danger it is wary enough. 

 Its flight is wavering and rapid, and it often performs evolutions 

 in the air. Its note is a clear short chock, and when many are 

 calling at the same time it is not unpleasing. Its food consists 

 of larvae and insects of various kinds, worms, shell-fish, crusta- 

 ceans, and to some extent also of grain, and it is said also to 

 steal the young and eggs of other birds. Its nest, which is 

 placed in an old ruin, the hollow of a tree, a hole in a cliff, and 

 even in a rabbit burrow, is a careless structure of sticks, straw, 

 feathers, wool, &c., and the eggs 4 to 7 in number are usually 

 laid in May, and vary from greenish white to pale bluish green 

 in ground colour, more or less spotted and blotched with pale 

 purplish, or purplish brown blotches, and light or dark brown 

 surface-markings ; in size averaging T36 by 1*01. Specimens 

 from Eastern Europe and Asia (C. collaris) have as a rule the 

 nuchal collar less tinged with grey and sometimes almost pure 

 white, but this is not constant. 



600. SUBSP. CORVUS NEGLECTUS. 



Corpus neglectus, Schlegel, Bijd. Dierk, Amsterdam, An. viii. p. 16 

 (.1859) ; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1863, p. 259 ; (Sharpe), Cat. B. Br. Mus. iii. 

 p. 28 ; (David and Oust.), Ois. Chine, p. 370 ; (Tacz.) F. 0. Sib. 0. 

 p. 524. 



ad. Differs from C. monedula in having only a very indistinct collar of 

 dull silvery grey, and the under parts dingy blackish grey, becoming black 

 on the thighs and under tail-coverts. Culmen 1'35, wing 9*1, tail 5 ! 2, 

 tarsus 1'9 inch. 



Hob. Northern China, Mongolia, and Japan. 



In habits this species does not differ from C. monedula of 

 which it is the eastern representative. 



