IIQ ORNITHOLOGY. 



Gould, B. of Aust. IV, Plate XVIII. 



Specimens in the collection from Australia. 



Late writers have adopted for this species the name Gorvus australis^ 

 Gmelin. 



This is one of the not unfrequent applications of names in a manner 

 which is purely conventional and arbitrary. Corviis aastralis is a 

 name given to the "South Sea Raven," first described by Latham, in 

 Gen. Syn. I, p. 3G9, and afterwards named in Syst. Nat. I, p. 365, by 

 Gmelin. It is stated to have been brought from the Friendly Islands, 

 not Australia. The description is too short to be either satisfactory 

 or conclusive, but should any species ever again be found at the islands 

 mentioned, sufficiently answering the description, it must be regarded 

 as entitled to Gmelin's name, whether the present bird or not. 



Gmelin uses the name Corvus austmlis for two species (Nos. 21 and 

 45 of genus Corvus, Syst. Nat. I, p. 3G5, and p. 377). The first name, 

 which is that above alluded to, probably is applicable to a bird of this 

 genus, the last is not. 



5. Corvus ruficollis. Lesson. 



Corvun rvficoJlh, Lesson, Traite d'Orn. I, p. 329 (1831); Pucheran, Rev. et Mag. 

 Zool. 1853, p. 548. 



^ Corvus h'ptonyx, Peale, Zool. Exp. Exp. Vincennes, Birds, p. 105 (Ist ed. 1848).''' 

 Atlas, Ornithology, Plate V. Female. 



Capite, collo, corporeque toto siibius rufo-spadiceis, corpore supra, alls ei 



* "Head, neck, breast, and abdomen, snuff-colored brown; the feathers of the neck 

 elongated and pointed ; wings and tail black, with purple reflections, the whole of the 

 plumage highly glossed; claws on the outer toes remarkably short; wings, when closed, 

 projecting beyond the tail, acutely pointed; tail rounded like C. corax ; irides brown; 

 bill and feet black. Female. 



" Total length, twenty inches; extent of wings forty-four inches; wing, from the carpal 

 joint, fifteen and six-tenths inches; tail, eight and one-tenth inches; tarsi, two and nine- 

 twentieths inches; middle toe, including the claw, one and nine-tenths inches; claw, 

 eleven-twentieths of an inch; hind toe, one and six-tenths inches; claw, three-fourths of 

 an inch ; bill, two and four-tenths inches ; to the corner of the mouth, two and four- 

 tenths inches." 



