350 
COEONE SPLENDENS. 
of a pale brownish grey or pale greyish white, and it has moreover, says Mr. Hume, a somewhat longer, slenderer, 
and more compressed bill. Examples in the British Museum resemble C. splendens in the back, wings, and tail, 
but have the hind neck, its sides, and the chest blackish grey, faintly snfiused with greenish, and the upper part 
of the breast concolorous with the rest of the under surface, which is greenish black suffused with grey. The 
wings of six examples measure respectively 10-4, 9’5, 10-6, 10'2, 9'5, 10-5o inches. 
Distribution . — This Ci’ow, which is very abundant in Ceylon within its limits, is localized in a curious 
manner round the coast. It is found on both sides of the north of the island, following the west coast down 
to about Kalatura, and the east to somewhere in the neighbourhood of Arookgam Bay ; beyond this, towards 
Hambantota, it may occur as a straggler, but certainly not in any numbers. Its cessation on the west coast 
under similar conditions of climate and food to those at Colombo, where it is so abundant, is most singular. 
The fact was first noticed by Mr. Nevill, C.C.S., in the J. A. S., C. B., 1870-71, and was at that time 
received by many with some little reserve. For my part, however, I very soon verified his statement on 
going to Galle, at which place, as likewise round the whole southern sea-board, I found it entirely absent. 
It is chiefly confined to towns and their immediate environs, being found in the interior only as a straggler, 
and even then is not met with many miles from the coast. Even at small villages on tlie sea, between 
many of its favourite resorts, it is almost replaced by its inland relative, thus appearing to congregate almost 
entirely where large native populations afford it an abundance of food. 
Mr. Nevill, in his above-mentioned notice of this Crow, remarks that there “is no doubt that it is not 
indigenous to the south of the island, having been introduced by tlie Dutch at their various stations as a 
propagator of cinnamon, the seeds of which it rejects uninjured.” I do not know whether there is, in the 
records of the former rulers of Ceylon, any thing to support this statement ; but I am inclined to think, with 
Mr. Holdsworth, that it is the habits and inclinations of the species which prevent it from spreading into the 
south ; being a bird of powerful flight it has been long enough in the island to diffuse itself over the whole 
surface of the low country, no matter in what manner it was first introduced ; and the fact that it is still 
remarkably local goes to prove that it confines itself to districts which suit its disposition, and that probably 
it avoids the south-west corner of the island owing to the humidity of the climate, a cause which alone 
localizes so many Ceylonese species. 
This well-known bird inhabits the whole of India from the south to the Himalayas ; it is found in 
Nepal, but does not extend as far into the range as the interior of Sikhim j it is obtained at Darjiling, 
however, whence there are specimens in the national collection. To the eastward of the Bay of Bengal the 
dark race, Corvus insolens of Hume, replaces it, but it reappears, whether as a migrant or resident is still 
uncertain, in Malacca. The specimen in the British Museum from this region was purchased from 
Mr. Boucard, who got it from a collector who shot it himself. I do not observe any other instance of its 
capture in Malacca, and some further light upon its presumed existence in that country is much to be 
desired. 
As regards the peninsula of India it extends as far to the north-west as Sindh, where it is plentiful. In 
Cliota Nagpur Mr. Ball remarks that it is more plentiful than the preceding species, and that it usually 
inhabits a distinct tract of country from that bird, although sometimes found with it about towns and villages. 
In the south it does not ascend the hills as it does in the Himalayas ; Mr. Fairbank only found it at the 
base of the Palanis, and it is not recorded from the Travaucore ranges at all. It extends across to the 
Laccadive Islands, in which group Mr. Hume found it at Amini, and heard of it at one or two of the islands 
nearest Cannanore. 
Habits . — The space allotted to me in such a work as the present is far from sufficient to describe 
the habits of this bold “ citizen ” of Eastern towns. He is gifted with as much as, if not more intelligence 
than any member of his sagacious family ; and annoying as he is, on account of his large share of brains, he is 
nevertheless a most useful adjunct to the sanitary regulations of Indian towns. He thrives to a marvellous 
degree in all these, his prosperous condition depending mainly on his utter audacity, his entire disregard 
of man, his thieving propensities, and his accurate powers of observation. He devotes himself to the timely 
occupation of the back yard, the bungalow verandah, the barrack -square, the abattoir, and the commissariat meat- 
