CORVUS, the RAVEN or CROW kind, in ornithology; a genus of birds of the order of picæ, the distinguishing characteristics of which are these: The beak is convex and cultrated; the nostrils are covered with bristly feathers; the tongue is forked and cartilaginous; and the feet are of the walking kind. The species are 19. The most remarkable are:
1. The corax, or raven of English authors, weighs three pounds, and is about two feet two inches in length; the colour is black, finely glossed with a rich blue; the belly excepted, which is of a dusky colour. They are very docile birds, and may be trained up to fowling like hawks; to fetch and carry like spaniels; they may be taught to speak like parrots; and, what is most extraordinary of all, they may be taught to imitate the human voice in singing. They have a great propensity to pilfer, often hiding things of value to the great loss of the owner, without use to themselves. They frequent the neighbourhood of great towns, where they are useful in devouring the carcasses and filth which would otherwise prove a nuisance. They, however, also destroy many living animals; such as, rabbits, young ducks, and chickens, and not unfrequently lambs which have been dropped in a weak state. In clear weather they fly in pairs to a great height, making a deep loud noise, different from the common croaking. Their scent is remarkably good; and they are very long lived. The quills of ravens sell for 12 s. per hundred, being of great use in tuning the lower notes of an harpsichord when the wires are set at a considerable distance from the sticks.—The raven makes its nest early in the spring, laying 5 or 6 eggs, of a pale bluish-green colour spotted with brown. With us it builds in trees; but in Greenland and Iceland makes its nest in the holes of rocks, composing it of roots and twigs, together with the bones they have picked, and lining it with hair, moss, &c. The flesh of these birds, rank and unfavourable as we may well suppose it, is eaten in Greenland by many of the natives, who also use the skins as a warm under-covering.
2. The corone, or carrion-crow, in the form of its body agrees with the raven; also in its food, which is carrion and other filth. It will also eat grain and insects; and like the raven will pick out the eyes: for which reason it was formerly distinguished from the raven, which feeds entirely on grain and insects, by the name of the gor, or gar-crow. Virgil says that its croaking foreboded rain:
Tum cornix plena pluviam vocat improba voce.
It was also thought a bird of bad omen, especially if it happened to be seen on the left hand:
Sape sinistra cava prædixit ab ille cornix.
England breeds more of this kind of birds than any other country in Europe. In the 24th of Henry VIII. they were grown so numerous, and thought to be so prejudicial to the farmer, that they were considered as an evil worthy of parliamentary redress; an act was passed for their destruction, in which rooks and
choughs were included: Every hamlet was to provide crow-nets for ten years; and all the inhabitants were obliged at certain times to assemble during that space to consult of the proper means for extirpating them. But though the crow abounds thus in Britain, it is so rare in Sweden, that Linnaeus speaks of it only as a bird that he once knew killed there. It lays the same number of eggs as the raven, and of the same colour: immediately after deserting their young they go in pairs. Both these birds are often found white or pied; an accident that befalls black birds more frequently than any others. Mr Pennant says, he has observed one entirely of a pale brown colour, not only in its plumage, but even in its bill and feet. The crow weighs about 20 ounces. Its length is 18 inches; its breadth two feet two inches.
Concerning these birds, we have the following curious anecdote in Mr Edward's natural history*. "The reverend Mr Robinson rector of Ousby in Westmoreland and Cumberland, says, 'that birds are natural planters of all sorts of wood and trees. They disseminate the kernels upon the earth, which like nurseries brings them forth till they grow up to their natural strength and perfection.' He says, 'About 25 years ago, coming from Rosedale early in the morning, I observed a great number of crows very busy at their work upon a declining ground of a mossy surface: I went out of my way on purpose to view their labour, and I found they were planting a grove of oaks. The manner of their planting was thus: they first made little holes in the earth with their bills, going about and about till the hole was deep enough; and then they dropped in the acorn, and covered it with earth and moss. The season was at the latter end of autumn when all seeds are full ripe.' Mr Robinson seems to think that Providence had given the crows this instinct solely for the propagation of trees; but I imagine it was given them principally for their own preservation, by hiding provision in time of plenty, in order to supply them in a time of scarcity: for it is observed in tame pies and daws kept about houses, that they will hide their meat when they have plenty of it, and fetch it from their hiding-places when they want. So that such an instinct in these birds may answer a double purpose; both their own support in times of need, and the propagation of the trees they plant: for wherever they hide a great number of nuts or grain in the earth, we cannot suppose they find them all again; but that as many will remain in the plot of ground they make use of, as can well grow by one another."
3. The frugilegus, or rook, is the corvus of Virgil; no other species of this kind being gregarious.
E postea decedens agmine magno
Corvus in campis densa exercitus alis.
A very natural description of the evening return of these birds to their nests.
The rook differs not greatly in its form from the carrion crow: the most remarkable difference is in the nostrils and root of the bill; which parts in the crow are well clothed with feathers, but in the rook are bare, or covered only with some bristly hairs. This arises from its thrusting the bill into the earth continually, after the various worms and cruce of insects, on which it feeds; for it does not live on carrion, like the