CORVINE. 95 



The feathers of the throat are lanceolate, but not those of the upper 

 breast. 

 ' Figures : Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. 39 b. 



The Japanese Raven is a resident on all the Japanese Islands, and 

 is the common Crow of Japan. I have examples collected by 

 Mr. Snow on the Kurile Islands. In the Swinhoe collection is an 

 example collected by Mr. Whitely at Hakodadi (Whitely, Ibis, 1867, 

 p. 200) ; and in the Pryer collection there are several examples from 

 Yokohama. In the British Museum there is an example from 

 Nagasaki ; and in the Pryer collection there is one from the central 

 group of the Loo-Choo Islands. Mr, Hoist procured it on the Bonin 

 Islands (Seebohm, Ibis, 1890, p. 97). 



It is said to be more of a maritime species than the Carrion-Crow, 

 and to have much harsher and more varied notes (Jouy, Proc. 

 United States Nat. Mus. 1883, p. 302). 



The Oriental Eaven represents the Common Raven in India, 

 Ceylon, the Burma peninsula, the islands of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago, South China, and Japan; but in North China, the Kurile 

 Islands, and in Eastern Siberia both species occiir, the Japanese 

 race of the Oriental Raven being found in company with the 

 Common Raven. The typical form of the Oriental Raven (often 

 called the Indian Jungle-Crow) is on an average smaller than its 

 Siberian and Japanese ally (wing 13^ to 11^- inches), and becomes 

 smaller still in Ceylon (wing 12J to lOf inches). Examples from 

 Siberia, Japan, China, and Ceylon are supposed always to have dark 

 grey bases to the feathers of the back ; those from the islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago are supposed to have nearly white bases to these 

 feathers; but Mr. Hume has conclusively shown (Stray Feathers, 

 1877, p. 461) that both forms are found in India. 



Corvus japonensis (Bonaparte, Consp. Generum Avium, i. p. 386) 

 was described in 1850 from Japan, but it appears to be only a 

 subspecific form of the Indian Jungle-Crow, and may therefore be 

 called Corvus macrorhynchus japonensis. The example from the 

 Loo-Choo Islands is smaller (wing 12^ inches) and has a more 

 slender bill (height of upper mandible at centre of nostrils "5 inch), 

 and agrees exactly with the type in the Swinhoe collection of 

 Corvus colonorum from Formosa, Intermediate forms (wing 13^ ; 

 upper mandible "55 inch) occur near Yokohama, so that the Loo- 

 Choo race, if it be regarded as separable, must be known as Corvus 

 macrorhynchus levaillanti (Lesson, Traits d'Orn. p. 328), a name 

 dating from 1831, whereas Swinhoe's name only dates from 1864. 



