RAVEN. 
A few specimens were procured ; one had the base of the feathers perfectly 
white.” From Central Australia: “I am completely puzzled b}’- these 
birds. Skins were collected with white basal half to feathers, while others 
had them almost black. The majority had white eyes; a few had hazel or 
hght brow'n eyes.” 
Only one species of Crow or Raven was recognised by Gould, who noted 
that the form was exactly intermediate between a Crow and Raven, and both 
Vigors and Horsfield, and Wagler, called the species Corvus coronoides. When 
Sharpe prepared The Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum he separated 
two species, even placing them in different genera, both about the same size 
and colour, but one having the feathers of the neck and body snow-white at 
their bases, which he called Corvus coronoides, and the other with the bases of 
the feathers dusky-brown or black which he called Corone australis. The former 
was the Crow of Austrahans, the latter the Raven, but the genus Corvus was 
based on the European Raven, the genus Corone on the European Crow. 
Sharpe’s conclusions were probably influenced by Ramsay’s account wherein 
the coloiu’ of the eyes was noted. 
The generic differences used by Sharpe for Corvus and Corone were that in 
the former the first primary was equal to or exceeding the innermost secondaries, 
and in the latter was shorter than the innermost secondaries but longer than 
outer secondaries, a somewhat subtle difference. 
On the authority of The British Museum Catalogue the two species were 
recognised by Austrahans and a clear account is given by Campbell in his Nests 
and Eggs, p. 54, as follows : “ The Raven is the larger bird, has eyes white in 
the adult, and wears conspicuous long feathers on its throat, and has the base 
of the feathers on the liind-part of its neck and back of a dusky-brown or sooty 
colour; while the true Crow has white eyes likewise, but the base of the feathers 
is snm-white. . . . The Crow is probably the more northern and western 
bird. I have received skins or feathers from various parts of the Continent 
and Tasmania. They have all pertained to Ravens, except those from near the 
Tropics, which were Crows. I examined several skins in the Hobart Museum ; 
also all Ravens. Sample heads from JVIr. Tom Carter, North-west Cape, were 
those of Crows, and were accompanied by the statement that the white-eyed 
birds had inside of mouth and tongue blue-black, while those with brown eyes 
had the mouth pinlc. Probably the latter were youthful birds.” 
Simultaneously, North distinguished as a distinct species a small bird 
Hving in the interior with white bases to the feathers hke the Northern Crow. 
When I prepared my “Reference List” in 1912 I noted that there were 
differences in detail as well as the three species above noted. I had a fair series 
and did not hesitate to determine subspecies, but of course classed them all 
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