388 The Hiftory of A N I M A L S. 
back has a tinge of brownifh, and the wings and tail are black : the black in this kind 
is very bright and glody, and has fomewhat of a bluifh tinge diffufed over if. 
The long feathers in each wing are twenty; of thefe the outer one is not half fo 
long as the fecond, and the third and fourth are longed: of all : the tail confids of 
twelve long feathers; the two middle ones of thefe are a little longer than the others, 
but the difference is incondderable. 
The legs are moderately long and Oender; the toes are long, and the hinder one is 
much longer and larger than any of the others: the claws are large and black, but 
not very (harp ; and the claw of the hinder toe is alfo confiderably longer than that of 
any of the others. 
^ This fpecies is very common with us; they are continually feen flying about old 
churches, and other high done buildings, making a loud noife j they build in thefe 
places, and fometimes, though more rarely, in trees. Almod all the writers on birds 
have defcribed the fpecies. Willughby and Ray call it Monedula five lupus; others, 
limply, Monedula. It feeds on infers and fruits, and it may be kept tame, and 
learned to imitate the human voice. 
Corvus dorfo fanguineo , remigibus nigris , re&ricibus viridibus. 
The Corvus , with a blood-red bach , a green tail\ and black 
wings . 
This fpecies, though very beautiful in it’s colouring, is the lead confiderable in it’s 
dze of any of the Corvus-kind ; it is fmaller than the jack-daw, but it is very like it in 
fhape: the head is large, and is fomewhat flatted on the crown : the eyes are large and 
piercing; their iris is whitifh, and the pupil black 5 there is a naked fpace about the 
eyes, and above them there ftand alfo two large and naked tubercles: the beak is 
large, long, drong, and black j the tongue is black, and lacerated at the end, and the 
palate is green. 
The head is of a deep bluifb-black, with a cad alfo of green in it ; the middle and 
upper part of the back are of a blue colour alfo, with a very drong tinge of a blood- 
red ; and the rump, as alfo the fmaller and inner covering feathers of the wings, are 
of a fine ultramarine blue : the bread is of the fame greenifh-blue with the head 5 
there is a deep tint of black at the bottom of this glofly and varied colour, and there 
are fome variegations of white in tranfverfe lines, on the fcapi of the feathers on the 
bread: the belly is of a pale and not very elegant bluifh-grey. 
The long feathers of each wing are twenty' in number, and the lower half of all 
thefe, except the fird, is blue, and the upper half black j the exterior ones are wholly 
black, except that there is a little bluifh toward the edges: the tail is formed of 
twelve feathers 5 the ten middle ones of thefe are all of the fame length, but the two 
exterior ones are about a finger’s breadth longer than thefe : the colour of the tail is 
variable, but in mod lights it appears green : when the feathers are examined fepa- 
rately, the two middle ones appear of a greyifh-blue, and thofe next to thefe are of a 
whitifh-blue toward their extremities, and the fucceeding ones have more of this pale 
colour: the red of the feathers appear bluifh or greyifh in the interior, and blackifh 
in the exterior ones; the extremities of the two outer ones are black, and, in the ge¬ 
neral, whenever the feathers are black on the upper fide, they are of an elegant blue 
on the under. 
The legs are fhort, and refemble thofe of the pigeon in form, but they are of a 
dufky yellow colour : the toes are long, the middle one confiderably the longed, and 
the claws are black; that of the middle toe is on the inner part fharpened into a kind 
of edge, and all the toes are divided quite to the bafe. 
This 
