THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
were of mixed brown plumage, which was a new phrase to me. . . . 
On May 3, at a camp on the west side of Dirk Hartog, where Crows 
were abundant and tame, I noticed that many of them had brown napes, 
and much brown mingled with the ordinary black plumage on the back, 
wings and mider-parts. Oct. 2 : Shows a bird of tbe year. Plumage 
all black. Irides partly pale blue, partly hazel. Base of lower mandible 
duU crimson. Oct. 22: Fully fledged bird. Plumage all black. Base of 
lower mandible dull crimson. Irides had narrow, bright blue circle round 
pupils. Oct. 25: Adult. Irides white. Much brown in the plumage, 
on the mantle. Bill all black. Oct. 26: Adult. Irides white. Plumage 
all black. Nov. 1: Adult. Irides hazel. Plumage brown and black. The 
under plumage of all the Crows was white. Many Crows were observed through 
binoculars at close range. Immature birds could be distinguished by the dull 
crimson at the base of the lower mandibles. AU these seemed to have black 
plumage. Adults, with black beaks throughout, had mostly brown and black 
plumage.” 
Whitlock was also puzzled and VTote : “ One shot from a flock (of non¬ 
breeding birds) had the plumage much like that of the English Blackbird when 
changing from the mottled blackish-brovn to the fully adult glossy black of 
maturity. Dimensions in millimetres: Length 440; ^ving 310; culmen 50; 
tarsus 53 ; iris brovn. In another adult the iris was white with a tinge of blue 
round the pupil.” ‘ 
These specimens H. L. MTiite identified as the Short-biUed Crow. 
Capt. IVhite vTites : “ Widely distributed, not nearly so numerous in 
South Australia as formerly, which will mean a great loss to the squatter, for 
these birds are the best of scavengers, and the blow-fly pest is increasing every 
day through the destruction of these birds. They are found aU over South 
Austraha with only one or two exceptions where the short-billed bird is found. 
The writer has found them nesting in the big gums {EucalypiAis rostraia) along 
the watercourses and in low mulga and casuarina trees in the interior. Nest is 
a rough structure of sticks placed in a fork of a limb or trunk of tree; have 
seen several nests constructed entirely of scraps of fencing wire, and one 
was built on the top of a telegraph pole. This bird fives on carrion, lizards, 
or any small reptiles, grasshoppers, insects of many lands, and will take eggs 
from fowl-yard or from other birds’ nests. Nesting-season from August to 
November. Clutch of four to six eggs.” 
Since vuiting the above, Meinertzhagen has monographed the Crows 
in Nov. Zool., '\’’ol. XXXIII, pp. 57-121. He tells us in the Introduction 
how prejudiced he is. Tins is carried to excess on p. 86, where he makes 
cecilce, the largest Crow, an absolute S 3 monym of bennetti the smallest. 
412 
