556 
CATALOGUE. 
and understood by all the crows in the vicinity, who immediately 
flock to the expected banquet. One, bolder than the rest, now ap- 
proaches, and hops upon the animal's body; as this is not an unusual 
practice with them whilst searching for ticks, the animal lies still 
till the crow peers into its eyes, when, should it be in a state to 
defend itself, a shake of the head rids it of its dangerous friend, who 
then, instead of feasting on its eyeballs, performs the grateful office 
of ridding it of its vermin. Par different, however, is the fate of the 
wretched animal dying of disease or of the deadly rifle-ball ; full well 
the Carrion Crow knows the dim eye over which the shadows of 
death are stealing, and, like the wretches who rob the dying on the 
field of battle, he hastens its last moments. Plunging its powerful 
bill into the eyeball of his victim, it tugs at it, despite the feeble 
struggles which oppose it, and is soon joined by its now bolder com- 
panions, some pecking at the eyes, some at the fatal wound or sore ; 
but all select those points where the thinness of the skin, or an ab- 
rasion in it, offers an easy access to the entrails; these, once reached, 
are torn out and swallowed, but the eye is invariably the first point 
of attack. 
About the villages the Carrion Crow builds its nest in the cocoa- 
nut trees ; in the jungles it selects a tall tree, amid the upper 
branches of which it fixes a framework of sticks, and on this con- 
structs a nest of twigs and grasses. The eggs, from three to five, 
are usually of a dull greenish-brown colour, thickly mottled with 
brown, these markings being most prevalent at the small end. 
Axis li in., diam. 1^ in. They are usually laid in January and 
Pebruary." — (Layard.) 
834. COR VUS SINENSIS, Gould, MS. 
a. Shanghai. Presented by J. Gould, Esq., 1856. 
C. sinensis, n. sp. — This is a species intermediate between C. Corax 
and O. Corone : it is longer in all its admeasurements than the 
C. cuhnvnatus ; the bill is stronger and higher at the base, and less 
prolonged ; in colour, particularly about the head and shoulders, it 
is more silky, and of a browner hue, or less steely black. Its nearest 
ally is the C. culminatus ; but it appears to be really distinct. 
Length of male 20 in., of wing 13f in., tail 9 in., bill to gape 2| in., 
and tarsus 2| in. Pemale somewhat smaller. 
Specimens of both sexes are in the Collection of J. Gould, Esq., 
from the neighbourhood of Canton and Shanghai. 
