CORONE SPLENDENS. 



(THE COMMON GREY CROW.) 



Corvus splendens, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. viii. p. 44 (1816) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. 



B. p. 90 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 124 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. 



Hist. 1854, xiii. p. 214 ; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. ii. p. 559 (1856); Jerdon, 



B. of Ind. ii. p. 298 (1863); Nevill, J. A. S. (Ceylon Br.) p. 33 (1870-71); Legge, 



ibid. p. 52; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 460; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 23 ; Butler, 



Str. Feath. 1875, p. 493; Hume, ibid. 1876, p. 463. 

 Corvus zmpudicus, Gray, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 14 (1870) ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, p. 413 (1873) ; 



id. Str. Feath. 1873, p. 206; Adam, ibid. p. 386; Ball, ibid. 1874, p. 418. 

 Corone splendens, Sharpe, Cat. B. iii. p. 33 (1877). 

 The Indian Hooded Crow, Kelaart ; The Common Indian Crow, Jerdon. 

 Kowa, Patti-koiua, Desi-kowa, Hind., in various districts ; Kag or Kak, Beng. ; Manchi-kaki, 



Telugu ; Nalla-kaka, Tam. (Jerdon). 

 Karavi-kaka, lit. " Low-caste Crow," Sinhalese ; Kakum, Ceylonese Tamils ; Grdya, 



Portuguese in Ceylon. 



Adult male and female. Length 15-75 to 17 - inches ; wing lO-O to ll'O ; tail 6'0 to 6-5; tarsus 1*9 to 2 - 0; mid 

 toe 1"4 to 1-5, claw (straight) 05; bill to gape 1:9 to 2 - 0. This species is as variable as the last in size, but 

 females average smaller than males. 



Iris dark brown ; bill, legs, and feet black. 



Forehead, crown, chin, cheeks and throat, back, wings, and tail black; the back, wing-coverts, and outer webs of 

 secondaries with purple, and the throat, primaries, and tail with green reflections ; nape, ear-coverts, sides and 

 back of neck cinereous grey, blending into the black of the surrounding parts, and passing on the chest into 

 a slightly duskier hue than that of the hind neck ; breast and lower parts greyish black, glossed slightly with 

 greenish and blending into the hue of the chest ; under surface of primaries, particularly near the base, pervaded 

 with greyish. 



Young. Birds of the year have the wing varying from O'O to 10 - inches. 



In the nest-plumage the hind neck is dull grey and the crown is pervaded with the same ; the chest and under surface 

 are of an earthy brown, and at the age of three or four months the greenish-black feathers appear on the breast. 



Obs. The plumage of this Crow is subject to variation dependent on age and freshness of the feathers ; in abraded 

 plumage the hind neck becomes quite fulvous, losing the grey tint of the newly acquired feather. This character 

 is not the result of age in the individual : birds that are in moult may be seen with grey feathers intermingled 

 with old fulvous-coloured ones. The amount of metallic reflections present on the upper-surface plumage increases 

 somewhat as the bird grows to maturity. 



Ceylonese specimens have been said to be blacker than Indian ; but I do not know whether this alleged character would 

 invariably hold good as regards the upper surface, were an equally large series of adult examples from the two 

 localities compared ; certainly continental birds are paler on the chest, and the grey tint descends lower clown 

 than in those from Ceylon, but some examples from India will coincide as regards the hind neck with insular 

 ones. Birds which I have examined from Nepal and Darjiling are very pale on the hood and chest. The wings 

 of eight specimens measure respectively 11-2, 11-0, 11"4, 10-8, 10-0, 11-9, 11-0, 10-8 inches; the largest are 

 from Nepal. Ceylonese examples compared, therefore, with the above series will be seen to be smaller than their 

 Indian fellows ; but in regard to size insular birds vary very much ; one has only to look at a number of adults 

 as they hop about in the streets to notice at once the variation in size which exists among them. Mr. Hume 

 writes that specimens shot in the Laccadives were very dark, recalling C. insolens. 

 In Burmah is a nearly allied race or subspecies of the present, the Corvus insolens of Hume. It differs from the 

 Indian bird in being blacker with a somewhat dull appearance about those parts which in the Indian Crow are 



