172 OMNIVOILE. 



places, and are highly useful to man. Their flesh is hard, 

 black, and bitter, though the young of some are eaten, being 

 skinned before they are dressed. 



The omnivorse, partly no doubt from the ease with which, 

 in consequence of their miscellaneous and ready appetite, 

 they can be fed, are all easily tamed ; and in that state they 

 are capable of very considerable attachment, both to places 

 and to persons. They can also be taught to articulate words ; 

 and it is a curious fact in ornithology, that the birds which 

 are the most easily taught to do that, are also the most 

 remarkable for the roughness and harshness of their voices, 

 and the absence of anything that can be considered as natural 

 song. 



There are two divisions of them, the Crows, properly so 

 called, whose characters are well defined ; and the other 

 genera, to which no common name can with propriety be 

 given, as they vary so much both in their appearance and 

 their habits. 



CROWS (Corvus). 



Colour generally uniform ; prevailing hue dark, generally 

 black, of different shades and with numerous reflections. Bill 

 very strong, upper mandible slightly bent at the tip. Tail 

 of moderate length and rounded. Very numerous, found in 

 all situations from the mountain top to the sea shore ; but 

 some prefer cultivated places, and others the wilds. The 

 former are, generally speaking, the more social in their 

 habits; the latter partake more of the characters of predatory 

 birds. 



THE BOOK (Corvus frugilegus). 



Every body knows the rook ; the dark, the noisy, and 

 sometimes the nest-plundering, or in the early fields, the 

 contribution-levying rook ; but still, notwithstanding, the 



