ISO 
POPULAE HISTORY OP BIRDS. 
bills seem to connect it with the Climbing Birds^ forming the 
order Scansores. 
The Crow family, Corvid^e, of which the Jackdaw, Mag- 
pie, Jay, and Cornish Chough are familiar British examples, 
is characterized by the beak being strong, more or less 
lengthened and compressed, and the nostrils generally co- 
vered with bristly hairs, directed forwards. The birds are 
decidedly omnivorous ; and in such of them as find their 
food in carrion, the powers of smelling are very considerable, 
and their eyes are particularly quick-sighted. The whole 
family are apt to carry off to their nests any bright articles 
which may come in their way, however useless they may be 
to them. The general colouring of the family is sombre, 
though some of the groups, such as the jays [Garmlincje) , 
are very brightly and often gorgeously clad. The species 
of the crow family are possessed of long, pointed, and 
powerful wings ; their legs and toes are strong and well 
scaled. Some of the species, such as the rook {Cfrugile- 
gus), live together in great flocks, and nestle in society; 
while others, such as the raven, are solitary in their habits. 
" He belong' d, they did say, to the witch Melancholy ! 
Blacker was he than blackest jet — 
Plew low in the rain, and his feathers not wet !" — Coleridge. 
