430 THE BIRDS OF AtTSTBALlA 



The Raven or White-eyed Crow. 



Corone australis. 



Australia and Tasmania. 



Plumage uniform purple blue-black; all the body feathers dusky- 

 brown or black at the base; iris white or dark-brown; bill and legs black. 

 Length 18.5, culmen 2.45, wing 13.7, tail 8, tarsus 2.6. 



These three birds are as similar in their habits as in their 

 plumage, and the name Crow is used in Australia indifferently 

 for each. They all fly high and utter a rather prolonged and 

 melancholy harsh caw, and will, like the Vultures, assemble in 

 numbers from great distances, whenever a carcass or a 

 plentiful supply of newly-sown corn is espied from their look- 

 out. The settlers feel the strongest resentment against these 

 birds, on account of the habit of pecking out the eyes of a dying 

 or wounded animal, and on account of the depredations on their 

 crops. They will often assemble around a camp in the bush, 

 sitting on the trees with sinister aspect, as if anticipating some 

 mishap to the party, but probably with the humbler object of 

 picking up scraps. A curious example of the power of con- 

 gregating, and one more to the credit of the birds, was seen this 

 summer on one of the Victoria Railways. A block having 

 occurred on the telegraph line, an officer was sent along the line 

 to inquire into the fault, and it was found to be due to the 

 presence of "some thousands" of crows perched on the wires, 

 the weight of the birds causing the top wires to join the lower 

 ones — the presence of the crows was due to the myriads of grass- 

 hoppers in the locality. As soon as the birds were driven off, 

 communication was restored. The large nest is formed of sticks 

 and placed near the top of a high tree. The eggs are three or 

 four in number, long, dull pale-green, blotched and freckled all 

 over with umber-brown, and measure 1.75 x 1.1 inch. 



Gould considered that the Raven and the Crow were the same 

 bird, and that the eye is always white in the adult. It is rather 

 curious to note in regard to this point that the Victorian Field 

 Naturalists on capturing a Crow on an excursion to Melton, near 

 Melbourne, found that one of the eyes of the bird was white and 

 the other hazel. The constant differences in colour of the bases 

 of the body feathers, however, settles the matter. "We need not 

 make two species of Crow because of the colour of the eyes ; but 

 the Raven is certainly distinct from the Crow; and has never 

 been found with a white eye. 



