THE CROW FAMILY. 

 By WALTER W. FROGGATT, F.L.S. Government Entomologist). 



Of the fowls of the air and the birds oi the earth the crows are credited with supernatural knowledge 

 and cunning '."lore all others. In both ancient and modern literature their habits are recorded, and 

 in folklore, sons and story they are renowned in many lands. Not, however, as birds to be loved or 

 venerated, but rather to be feared and propitiated. 



Tims a writer giving an account of the survival of some of the old pagan customs in the north of 

 Scotland says : " At the annual rural sacrifice at Bel Tein, the villagers broke their votive cakes into 

 nine pieces ; and. alter throwing some ol them over their shoulders to the different evil spirits, they 

 devoted the last three thus : ' 1 gi\ e to thee. O fox. spare thou my lambs ; this I give to thee, O hooded 

 crow ; this to thee. O eagle.' 



In ancient Egypt the crow w as honoured as a bird of more than ordinary understanding. Anacreon 

 says ; " Near Lake Mvris there was a monument erected to a crow by King Marrhes, that was thus 

 honoured for its intelligence. It was trained to carry his epistles with gn.il expedition, and when he 

 gave it orders, it immediately understood them, which way he desired its flight, through what country 

 it should pass, and where it should stop." 



Under the more ancient name of the raven, it figures in many places in the Bible. Noali sent 

 one out of the ark to seek lor dry land ; Elijah was fed by ravens ; Solomon says that ravens were 

 carrion feeders, and with the eagles devoured the bodies of the evil doers who were denied burial and 

 were cast out in the valley outside the city walls. The Greeks and Romans looked upon crows as birds 

 of ill omen ; they were unlucky. Pliny says : " These birds all of them keep much prattling, and are 

 full cf chat, which most men take for an unlucky figure and presage of ill fortune, though some there 

 be that think otherwise, and highly esteem them." From this statement it is evident that then, as 

 now, there were divided opinions on the crow question, and that this old world bird had some admirers 

 among the Roman citizens, even if it sometimes looked for sick lambs on the hillsides beyond the 

 gates of Rome. 



We have many instances in modern literature of pet crows or ravens. Dickens has immortalised 

 Gyp, the Raven ; Poe. the mournful raven that perched upon the bust of Pallas ; Charles Waterton, 

 in his Natural History Essays, has given an entertaining account of his pet raven, Marco. 



The writer, before taking up the question of the Raven or Crow in Australia, proposes to give a 

 brief account of the crow family as a whole. This includes the raven, carrion crow, hooded crow, 

 rook, and jackdaw, a number of closely-allied birds, both in structure and habits, and which have 

 been placed by most naturalists in the Family Cowidtz. Several of these birds have a wide range 

 over the face of the earth, and can adapt themselves to all kinds of climate, from the borderlands of 

 the Arctic regions to the arid plains of the desert. They may be gregarious where food is abundant, or 

 solitary where rations are scarce ; they may live far from the haunts ol man, or become semi-domesti- 

 cated. They may be hunters as savage as the hawks, feeders upon offal and carrion, or even fighters 

 for scraps with the poultry, or disputing the ownership of the bones in the eastern cities with the street 

 dogs. 



