PYRRHOCORAX GRACULUS. 283 



The other was a black crow \_Corvus frugilegus]. The flight-feathers 

 of the wing were the lightest. The downy part of the roots of the 

 feathers were not of so clear an ash colour as the other. It had a 

 longer bill ; the legs were stronger ; the toes longer ; the claws not so 

 sharp ; and all these parts were not of so fine a black. The stomach 

 was much the same, but was empty. The caeca were nearly twice the 

 length of those of the other 1 . This was a male. Both species had 

 muscles at the division of the trachea 2 . 



A crow is so well known in this country, that no one can mistake 

 another bird for it ; therefore, when a Briton says he saw and killed 

 crows in any other country, we must suppose they were really crows : 

 and if tbis mode of reasoning is just, the crows are a very universal 

 bird. White 3 writes familiarly of crows in New Holland. They are 

 also talked of in America 4 . 



The Cornish Jackdaw, or Chough [Pyrrhocorax graculus, 

 Ternm.] . 



The ducts of the liver are the same as in the guinea-fowl, only that 

 the cyst-hepatic duct opens into the bladder ; but the space between 

 the entrances of the two ducts was a kind of groove ; so that the bile 

 passing by the cyst-hepatic duct might get into the cystic duct without 

 getting into the bladder ; it is much the same as in the guinea-cock. 

 The length of the ducts was about If inch. The stomach is like that 

 of the peewit, but there were no stones in it. The length of the rectum 

 was 1 J inch : the length of the caeca was -|ths of an inch. The testes 

 were black, and about so big . The spleen was oblong and lying 



1 [The most obvious mark of distinction in mature birds, is that the rook is 

 bare of feathers about the base of the bill, which is whitish and scurfy ; but this is 

 acquired by the habit of thrusting its bill into the ground after worms and insects, 

 and does not characterize the young bird. The male has a pouch at the root of the 

 tongue, which may be observed distended with food at the breeding season.] 



2 [All the Corvi have five pairs of muscles to the lower larynx.] 



3 [John White, Esq., Surgeon-General to the settlement of New South Wales ; 

 author of a 'Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales,' 4to, 1790, in the appendix 

 of which are Hunter's descriptions of some Australian quadrupeds. The Australian 

 crows are referred to the genus Cracticus.] 



4 [Gould remarks, "It is exceedingly interesting to trace the range of the mem- 

 bers of this genus or the true crows ; not so much on account of their wide distribu- 

 tion, as from the circumstance of the form being non-existent in some countries 

 which appear admirably adapted for their well-being ; thus, while the species are 

 widely distributed over the whole of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, the Indian 

 Islands and Australia, none are to be found in South America," — Birds of Australia, 

 p. liv.] 



