crow. 27 



This bird, first described and figured by Gesner, is said to be 

 found on all the high mountains of Italy, Stiria, Switzerland, and 

 Bavaria, and the rocks on the borders of the Danube, but more 

 common in Switzerland than elsewhere, and there called Waldrapp, 

 and Steinrapp ; flies very high ; is gregarious and migratory ; arrives 

 at Zurich with the Storks, the beginning of April : the female lays 

 two or three eggs, and the young fly the beginning of June ; is easily 

 tamed, if taken young, and is accounted good eating. The food is 

 chiefly small fry of fishes, frogs, and all sorts of insects. Neither the 

 young, nor very old birds have the crest, whence they have been called 

 Bald Crows.* According to M. Temminck, this bird has no exis- 

 tence, being made up from the Red-legged, by forming a crest 

 of additional feathers. This we cannot contradict, as we have only 

 seen figures of the bird ; but if such a fraud has been practised on 

 Gesner, it is, we believe, not the only one known among Ornitho- 

 logists. 



17— RED-BILLED JAY. 



Corvus erythrorynchos, Ind. Orn. i. 161. Gm. Lin: i. 372. Daud. ii. 240. pi. 15. 



Shaw's Zool. vii. 361. 

 Geay de la Chine a bee rouge, Buf. iii. 115. PL ml. 622. 

 La Pie bleue, Levail. Ois. ii. 24. pi. 57. 

 Red-billed Jay, Gen. Syn. i. 390. Id. Sup. p. 80. Id. Sup. ii. p. 112. 



SIZE of a Jay. Bill red ; fore part of the head, neck, and breast 

 velvety black ; behind light grey, mixing irregularly with the black 

 on the fore part ; body brown above, whitish beneath, with a violet 

 tinge, most conspicuous on the wings ; each feather of which is light 

 violet at the base, black in the middle, and white at the end. Tail 



* Neither Albin's Figure, nor that of Borowski has a crest, which gives the bird the 

 appearance of a bald kind of Ibis, and the figure in Gesner is bare above the knee. I have 

 never seen a specimen, and must therefore rely upon what former authors have recorded. 



E 2 



