101 
Mr. A. R. Wallace on certain species of Corvus. 
possess, the feathers are, as Schlegel describes it, ec tres-clair 
semees.” The bill, in the male, is entirely black; in the female 
and young birds, reddish white, with a black tip. The feet, in 
both sexes, are black. 
The true Corvus senex is a very different bird. The bill and 
feet are yellowish white in both sexes, and a large space round 
the eye quite bare and of a white colour. The bill resembles 
in form that of C. ossifragus, figured by Schlegel, but is more 
elongated, and the upper mandible extends a quarter of an inch 
beyond the lower one; the base of the lower mandible is wider 
than in the much longer bill of C.fuscicapillus. The hairy plumes 
which cover the nostrils spread upwards, so as to rise and almost 
meet above the culmen at more than half an inch from its base, 
whereas in most other species of Corvus (and in C. fuscicapillus 
in particular) they are depressed over the nostrils only, leaving 
the culmen, except at its base, perfectly free. But the most 
characteristic feature of C. senex is its long graduated tail, which 
differs from that of every other Crow : Lesson gives it as from nine 
to ten inches in length, which exactly agrees with my specimens. 
In the colour of C. senex there is much individual variation, and 
though most frequently the head is of a dull dirty white, and the 
rest of the body dusky, yet I have one specimen in which the 
wings and tail show purple glosses, and I should not be surprised 
if others had the full corvine hues. 
In the following comparative dimensions of the two birds, it 
will be seen that those of SchlegeFs specimens, allowing for the 
French inches (^th more than English), exactly agree with my 
own. 
Bill, from 
Total 
base of 
Height 
lengths 
Wings. Tail. culmen. 
of do. 
C. senex , Less. . . 
23 in. 
13 in. 9-10 in. 2-Jin. 
1 in. 
C. fuscicapillus . . 
21-23 
13-13| 7 
n 
( C . senex , Schlegel) 
20 
ISA 6i 2§ 
i 
The synonyms and references to C. fuscicapillus will therefore 
stand thus:— 
Corvus fuscicapillus. 
Corvus oiru, G. R. Grav, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1858, n. 180. 
