ORDER PASSERES. 327 



have seen in the text, makes three genera of his corvine family, 

 including 1. The Crow, with their several subgenera, above- 

 named ; 2. The Rollers ; and 3. The Birds of Paradise. 



In addition to the generic characters applied in the text to 

 the first of these, we shall merely add here that they have 

 three toes before and one behind. 



The crows proper differ from the pies and jays in their 

 mode of locomotion on the ground. The former advance by 

 walking, and that rather deliberately ; but the latter move 

 by vigorous leaps. In the disposition to steal, and hide any 

 thing they can carry off; in the habit of laying up a store of 

 provisions ; and in the imitative faculty of the voice, they all 

 agree ; but in the nature of the food of each, in their grega- 

 rious or solitary habits, and in the shelter they select to 

 build or breed in, they differ from each other materially. 



The Rave7i, which is the largest species of its order, is black, 

 but there are purplish reflections on the upper part of the 

 body, and greenish tints underneath. The female is distin- 

 guished by a colour less deep, by a weaker bill, and by being 

 rather smaller than the mule. The plumage of the young 

 also, is not so decided a black, and it is without reflections. 

 The tongue is black, cylindrical at the base, flatted and 

 forked at the extremity ; the oesophagus is dilated at the 

 point of its junction with the stomach, and forms a sort of 

 gizzard, of which this bird is otherwise destitute. The stomach 

 of the raven is neither muscular, like that of the gallinaceous 

 and other birds, nor is it like that of the birds of prey, and 

 of quadrupeds ; but, in point of solidity of its coats is inter- 

 mediate between the two. Thus a small tinned tube will not 

 be altered in shape in the stomach of this bird, though it will 

 in that of a pigeon ; but, a tube of lead, being a softer metal, 

 will be flatted in the stomach of the raven, though an ordi- 

 nary membranaceous stomach will have no such effect upon it. 

 In accordance with this comparative weakness of stomach in 



