THE CROW. 9 



Andamans and Burma the largest, we may infer that 

 he likes a hot stuffy climate better than a cool bracing 

 one. It is the other way with the true raven (Corvus 

 corax), which is easily distinguished by his greater 

 size and the beard of pointed hackles on his throat, for 

 this bird is largest and finest in the hills and dwindles 

 into a puny race when he lives in the plains ; but he 

 is always considerably bigger than the Jungle-crow. 

 Our familiar Calcutta friend is mostly confined to 

 India, and to low elevations there, and does not seem 

 to vary much in size, though in the drier parts his 

 neck gets nearly white, and in Ceylon so much darker 

 that it attracts the attention of any one who observes 

 him ; on the Burmese frontier he has a near relative 

 in the Burmese House-crow (Corvus insolens) which 

 is of the same size, but dark-necked and with a different 

 note, but similar in habits. Outside India he 

 has of late years been introduced as a scavenger 

 into Zanzibar, where I first made his acquaintance in 

 the wild state ; but as a sanitary bird he is, in my 

 opinion, much inferior to his hated rival, the kite. 

 Moreover, there are, of course, Crows of other kinds 

 in Africa, as there are in all the large divisions of the 

 world except in South America, where the place of 

 these birds is taken by the carrion hawks, which 

 exhibit in their habits the combined rascality of Crow 

 and kite. One of this group can often be seen at 



