2 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



pattern of colour, as well as in size, he certainly very 

 much recalls the jackdaw (Corms monedula) at home, 

 but be has a very much longer and heavier bill, and 

 dark instead of white eyes. The difference between 

 the two species may be at once noticed even in the 

 mounted specimens in a Museum, and is much more 

 conspicuous in the living birds, as specific distinctions 

 most commonly are. 



There is nothing to choose in the matter of gloss 

 and richness of plumage between the male and female 

 Crows, but the former's bigger head and bill will 

 distinguish him easily if both are seen together : 

 the difference in feature is hardly marked enough 

 to sex any Crow by itself. Young Crows when they 

 leave the nest have light blue eyes and pink mouths, 

 but they do not look innocent on that; account — 

 rather, with their duller, shabbier plumage, more 

 blackguardly than their dark-eyed, black-mawed 

 parents ; the old Crow being, if anything, rather 

 blacker inside than out, as far as one can see when 

 he opens his mouth to caw. 



The Crow, unlike the Ethiopian of Scripture, can 

 change his skin, or rather his feathers, for pied, white 

 and dun-coloured specimens are not unknown ; one 

 of the last mentioned kind lived for more than a dozen 

 years in the Alipore Zoo. The white birds have 

 flesh-coloured legs and beaks, and in the duns the 



