350 COEONE SPLENDENS. 



of a pale brownish grey or pale greyish white, and it has moreover, says Mr. Hume, a somewhat longer, slenderer, 

 and more compressed bill. Examples in the British Museum resemble 0. splendens in the back, wings, and tail, 

 but have the hind neck, its sides, and the chest blackish grey, faintly suffused with greenish, and the upper part 

 of the breast concolorous with the rest of the under surface, which is greenish black suffused with grey. The 

 wings of six examples measure respectively 10-4, 95, 10-6, 102, 9 - 5, 10-55 inches. 



Distribution. — This Crow, which is very abundant in Ceylon within its limits, is localized in a curious 

 manner round the coast. It is found on both sides of the north of the island, following the west coast down 

 to about Kalatura, and the east to somewhere in the neighbourhood of Arookgam Bay ; beyond this, towards 

 Hambantota, it may occur as a straggler, but certainly not in any numbers. Its cessation on the west coast 

 under similar conditions of climate and food to those at Colombo, where it is so abundant, is most singular. 

 The fact was first noticed by Mr. Nevill, C.C.S., in the J. A. S., C. B., 1870-71, and was at that time 

 received by many with some little reserve. For my part, however, I very soon verified his statement on 

 going to Gallc, at which place, as likewise round the whole southern sea-board, I found it entirely absent. 

 It is chiefly confined to towns and their immediate environs, being found in the interior only as a straggler, 

 and even then is not met with many miles from the coast. Even at small villages on the sea, between 

 many of its favourite resorts, it is almost replaced by its inland relative, thus appearing to congregate almost 

 entirely where large native populations afford it an abundance of food. 



Mr. Nevill, in his above-mentioned notice of this Crow, remarks that there " is no doubt that it is not 

 indigenous to the south of the island, having been introduced by the Dutch at their various stations as a 

 propagator of cinnamon, the seeds of which it rejects uninjured." I do not know whether there is, in the 

 records of the former rulers of Ceylon, any thing to support this statement ; but I am inclined to think, with 

 Mr. fioldsworth, that it is the habits and inclinations of the species which prevent it from spreading into the 

 south ; being a bird of powerful flight it has been long enough in the island to diffuse itself over the whole 

 surface of the low country, no matter in what manner it was first introduced ; and the fact that it is still 

 remarkably local goes to prove that it confines itself to districts which suit its disposition, and that probably 

 it avoids the south-west corner of the island owing to the humidity of the climate, a cause which alone 

 localizes so many Ceylonese species. 



This well-known bird inhabits the whole of India from the south to the Himalayas ; it is found in 

 Nepal, but docs not extend as far into the range as the interior of Sikhim ; it is obtained at Darjiling, 

 however, whence there are specimens in the national collection. To the eastward of the Bay of Bengal the 

 dark race, Corvus insolens of Hume, replaces it, but it reappears, whether as a migrant or resident is still 

 uncertain, in Malacca. The specimen in the British Museum from this region was purchased from 

 Mr. Boucard, who got it from a collector who shot it himself. I do not observe any other instance of its 

 capture in Malacca, and some further light upon its presumed existence in that country is much to be 

 desired. 



As regards the peninsula of India it extends as far to the north-west as Sindh, where it is plentiful. In 

 Chota Nagpur Mr. Ball remarks that it is more plentiful than the preceding species, and that it usually 

 inhabits a distinct tract of country from that bird, although sometimes found with it about towns and villages. 

 In the south it docs not ascend the hills as it does in the Himalayas; Mr. Fairbank only found it at the 

 base of the Palanis, and it is not recorded from the Travancore ranges at all. It extends across to the 

 Laccadive Islands, in which group Mr. Hume found it at Amini, and heard of it at one or two of the islands 

 nearest Cannanore. 



Habits.- — The space allotted to me in such a work as the present is far from sufficient to describe 

 the habits of this bold " citizen " of Eastern towns. He is gifted with as much as, if not more intelligence 

 than any member of his sagacious family ; and annoying as he is, on account of his large share of brains, he is 

 nevertheless a most useful adjunct to the sanitary regulations of Indian towns. He thrives to a marvellous 

 degree in all these, his prosperous condition depending mainly on his utter audacity, his entire disregard 

 of man, his thieving propensities, and his accurate powers of observation. He devotes himself to the timely 

 occupation of the back yard, the bungalow verandah, the barrack-square, the abattoir, and the commissariat meat- 



