COKVUS TKOPICUS. 



ALALA. 



"Tropic Crow," Lath. Gen. Synops. i. p. 384 (1781). 



" Raven," King, Voy. Pacif. Ocean, iii. pp. 119, 161 (1784). 



Corvus tropicus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 372 (1788) ; Latham, Ind. Orn. i. p. 157 (1790) ; Domi- 



dorff, Orn. Beytr. i. p. 372 (1794) ; Shaw, Zool. vii. p. 355 (1809) ; Tiedemann, Anat. 



Naturgesch. Vog. ii. p. 432 (1814) ; Bloxam, Voy. ' Blonde,' p. 250 (1826) ; Hartlaub, Arch. 



f. Naturgesch. 1852, i. p. 133 ; G. R. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 25 (1859). 

 ? Cracticus ater, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. v. p. 356 (1816). 

 Corvus hawaiiensis, Peale, U.S. Expl. Exped., Birds, p. 106, pi. xxviii* (1848) ; Hartlaub, ut 



supra, pp. 102, 133; Cassin, U.S. Expl. Exped., Mamm. & Orn. p. 119, pi. vi* (1858) ; 



G. R. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 24 (1859) ; Dole, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. xii. p. 300 (1869) ; 



id. Hawaiian Alman. p. 48 (1879) ; Sclater, Ibis, 1871, pp. 359, 360; id. op. cit. 1879, p. 92 ; 



Sharpe, Cat.B. Br. Mus. iii. p. 13, note (1877). 

 Corvus {Physocorax) hawaiiensis et tropicus, G. R. Gray, Hand-1. B. ii. p. 14 (1870). 



Figures notabiles. 



There can be no doubt that the " Ravens " mentioned by King in his account of 

 Cook's last voyage as having been met with at Kakooa in Hawaii are to be referred to 

 this bird, specimens of which must have reached England about that period, for Latham 

 described his Tropic Crow in 1781 from an example brought from Hawaii in the collec- 

 tion of Sir Joseph Banks, which from the details appears to have been a pied specimen. 

 Peale's Corvus hawaiiensis is of course identical, since this is the only species in the 

 island. 



Bloxam noticed this species in his account of the voyage of the ' Blonde,' and Peale 

 procured several examples during the United States Exploring Expedition ; but as these 

 were lost in the wreck of the 'Peacock,' the latter must be considered fortunate to have 

 so readily obtained the loan of two others from Dr. J. K. Townsend, which were sent 

 from Kaawaloa by Mr. Forbes, a missionary at Karakakoa Bay, and were afterwards 

 deposited in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy. Cassin, however, while 

 remarking upon the uniform cinereous tinge visible in Peale's examples, and upon their 

 small dimensions, did not consider them to belong to Corvus tropicus of Gmelin, which 

 is founded on Latham's Tropic Crow, but surmised that they might be the C. australis 

 of the former author. 



This interesting bird, well known to the natives by its name of Alala — the strict 

 signification of which is the cry made by any young animal — is fairly common in the 



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