crow. 39 



j 



at the end; legs black. — In M. Levaillant's plate the head feathers 

 are elongated, forming a pointed crest, and the whole of the head 

 below the eyes, as well as the chin black ; the body inclining to 

 blue above, and wings and tail fine bine ; tail of twelve feathers. 



This species migrates from the Mongolian Deserts and China, 

 only into that part of the Russian Dominions which lies to the South 

 of Lake Baikal. M. Levaillant's specimen came from China. 



33.— SENEGAL CROW. 



Corvus Senegaleusis, bid. Orn. i. 163. Lin. i. 158. Gm. Lin. i. 374. Shaw's Zool. 



vii. 371. 

 Corvus Afer, Lin. i. 157. Gm. Lin. i. 275. 

 Pica Senegalensis, Bris.n. 40. t. 3. f. 2. Id. Svo. i. 166. 

 Corvus Piapiac, Daud. ii. 239. Levail. Ois. ii. pi. 54. 

 Pie du Senegal, Buf. iii. 97. PI. enl. 538. 

 Senegal Crow, Gen. Syn.'i. 394. Id. Sup. ii. 114. 



LENGTH fourteen inches, size of a Magpie. Bill black ; 

 plumage in general violet black above, dusky black beneath ; quills 

 and tail brown, in shape cuneiform ; the two middle feathers seven 

 inches long, the outer four, all of them edged with violet black ; 

 legs black. 



Inhabits Senegal : found also at the Cape of Good Hope. 



The males have the tail much longer than the females ; perches 

 on high trees, sometimes twenty together ; builds on the tops of the 

 highest; and, like the Magpie, defends the nest with thorns, only 

 leaving one opening ; lays from six to eight white eggs, spotted with 

 brown, most so at the larger end ; seen in the inward parts of the 

 Cape, but rarely, if ever, at the Cape itself, called Pia piac from its 

 cry. — M. Levaillant mentions a singularity in one of the tail feathers 

 having two shafts arising from one quill, one of these entirely without 

 webs, but whether a lusus natures,* or peculiar to the species, is by 



* I have a common goose quill which branches out into two shafts. 



