584 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Insessores. they can find, from a boiled potato to a dead horse. 



*"* —v— ■*-'" When searching for food, they betake themselves to 

 open places, walk in a sedate manner, keep a good look 

 out, and on the least appearance of danger fly off to a dis- 

 tance. Their flight is also sedate, moderately rapid, and 

 performed by regular beats. Their cry varies from a 

 hoarse croak to a caw or chatter, and some of them are 

 musical. They nestle in high places, trees, towers, build- 

 ings of various kinds, or rocks ; and produce from three to 

 nine eggs, which are deposited very early in the season. 

 They repose at night in similar places, and when alarmed 

 by day generally take themselves to heights. Some spe- 

 cies are gregarious, others unsocial, — the latter being the 

 more carnivorous ; but even they are observed to associate 

 together when a large quantity of food attracts them to a 

 particular place. The sexes do not differ much in exter- 

 nal appearance ; the male, however, being in general more 

 robust, and having the plumage more glossy. Moulting 

 takes place in the summer months, and is very gradual. 

 Those which are more carnivorous have the faculty of dis- 

 covering carrion at a great distance, in the same manner as 

 the vultures, which they in some degree resemble in their 

 habits. They are all easily tamed, and may be taught to 

 imitate the human voice so far as to produce a few articu- 

 late sounds. In a state of domestication they are much 

 addicted to pilfering, their depredations not being confined 

 to articles of food, but extending to objects in no respect 

 useful to themselves." 1 



Five species of crow occur in Britain, all permanent 

 dwellers, viz. the raven (C. corax), the carrion-crow (C. 

 corone), the hooded crow (C. comix), the rook (C. frugi- 

 legus), and the jackdaw (C. monedula). We shall not de- 

 scribe the external aspect of these birds, which, we doubt 

 not, are familiar to our readers. The raven in a state of 

 nature is remarkable for his great cunning and sagacity, 

 while in the domesticated condition he is extremely fro- 

 licsome and full of humour. We have seen one that, while 

 engaged in amusing himself with a poodle dog, and unable 

 to keep pace with his four-footed play-fellow, would seize 

 him by a lock of hair, and hold on tenaciously while the 

 dog was careering at full gallop ; and his numerous devices, 

 with a view to conceal the remnants of his own food, or 

 appropriate that of others, were varied and unceasing. 

 This species is widely spread over the temperate and north- 

 ern parts of Europe and America, and in the minds of the 

 ignorant is usually regarded with some degree of supersti- 

 tious terror. In summer, when the sky is serene, he flies 

 in circles in the higher regions of the clear blue sky, and 

 his deep and solemn croak may be heard at a great dis- 

 tance ; but he is said to be sometimes also seen in the 

 midst of thunder-storms, with the electric fire streaming 

 from the point of his bill ! — an extraordinary phenomenon 

 certainly (if true), sufficient to terrify the superstitious, and 

 to stamp its subject with the character of a restless and in- 

 destructible demon. 



The carrion-crow, and the hooded species, are so like in 

 size and structure, that it would be scarcely possible to 

 distinguish them, but for the partially gray plumage of the 

 latter ; and as a black and a gray crow are often seen to- 

 gether, some naturalists incline to the belief that they are 

 actually the same. Their geographical distribution, how- 

 ever, seems to differ ; the gray kind, though common in 

 Britain and the continental countries of Europe, being 

 unknown in America, where, at the same time, the car- 

 rion-crow is described as identical with our own ; while, 

 on the other hand, we find the latter extremely rare in 

 the north of Italy, where the hooded crow abounds. The 

 jackdaw and the rook seem unknown in the western world. 

 The magpies (genus Pica, Cuv.) are of smaller dimen- 



sions than the crows properly so called, and their tails, in- Insessores. 

 stead of being either round or square, are long and gra- v ~— "v~~ / 

 duated. Their dispositions, however, are equally omnivo- 

 rous, and they are distinguished by the same sly and fur- 

 tive cunning. There is only a single European species, 

 our common British kind (C. pica, Linn.), which occurs 

 all over Europe, and is well known in North America, and 

 some parts of Asia. Many beautiful species occur in Chi- 

 na, and other eastern countries, such, for example, as the 

 red-billed pie, P. erythrorhyncha, Gould. Its size exceeds 

 that of our common kind, and the great length of its tail 

 bestows upon it a still more slender and elegant aspect. 

 The prevailing colours are blue, with bars of black and 

 white. It is often kept in aviaries, where it is highly es- 

 teemed, on account both of its docility and beauty. This 

 species likewise inhabits the Himalaya Mountains, and 

 there is reason to believe that it is fierce and tyrannical 

 in a state of nature. Mr Shore states, that one which he 

 kept in captivity, although it refused other food, pounced 

 ferociously upon living birds, which were presented by way 

 of experiment, and eagerly devoured them. When seen 

 amid the foliage of trees, it forms an ornamental and con- 

 spicuous object, flitting from bough to bough, its long and 

 flowing tail waving in the wind, and its whole form full of 

 vivacity and grace. 2 The Chinese magpie (P. sinensis), 

 made known by the researches of General Hardwicke, 

 seems widely extended over tracts of land of very various 

 character as to height and situation. It inhabits the higher 

 portions of the Himalayas, the plains at the base of those 

 mighty mountains, and a great part of the Chinese empire. 

 The beautiful jays (genus Garrulus, Cuv.) are very 

 nearly allied to the magpies, but the tail is not so length- 

 ened, and the culmen of the under mandible is rather more 

 convex. Our British species ( G. garrulus) is one of the 

 most ornamental of our indigenous birds. It dwells in 

 woods, beyond the outskirts of which it seldom wanders. 

 Its food consists of insects, fruits, and forest seeds. Spe- 

 cies of this little group are found in every quarter of the 

 known world except New Holland. The blue jay of Ame- 

 rica (G. cristatus, Plate CCCXCII. fig. 4) is an almost 

 universal inhabitant of the western woods, frequenting 

 the thickest settlements, as well as the deepest recesses 

 of the unpeopled forest, — where his harsh voice often 

 alarms the watchful deer, to the mortification of the dis- 

 appointed huntsman. This species is a bitter enemy to 

 owls, one of which he no sooner discovers than he sum- 

 mons the whole feathered fraternity to his assistance, and 

 the united mob proceed to vent their indignant spite 

 against the blinking solitary, in the most wrathful and un- 

 measured manner. But this jay himself cannot be held 

 guiltless of the most owl-like depredations, — for he be- 

 comes in his turn the very tyrant he detested, and sneaks 

 through wood and thicket, plundering every nest his pok- 

 ing bill can reach to, gobbling up the eggs, tearing the 

 callow young to pieces, and spreading not only fear, but 

 death, and sorrow, its sad concomitant, around him. An- 

 other very ornamental species — 



Proud of cserulean stains 

 From heaven's unsullied arch purloined, 



is that mentioned by Pallas as having been shot by Steller 

 when Behring's crew landed upon the coast of America. 

 It is the Corvus Stelleri of Latham, by whom it was first 

 described from a specimen in Sir Joseph Banks's collection 

 from Nootka Sound. A larger and most magnificent bird 

 is the Columbia jay (Garrulus Bullokii, Wagler, — G. gu- 

 bernatrix, Temm.), figured in Mr Audubon's splendid work. 

 The colour is bright blue, with a lofty crest of separate 

 plumes, the throat and breast black, the abdomen whitish, 



Macgillivray's British Birds, i. 496. 



s Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains, plate xli. 



