CORVUS, the crow, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Picx. Ge neric character : bill strong, convex, sharp edged ; nostrils covered with brist ly feathers turned back over them ; tongue cartilaginous and divided ; toes three forward and one backward, the middle one joined to the outer as far as the first joint. The greater number of this tribe of birds are to be found in al most every country, and they are distin guishable by being gregarious, noisy, and prolific ; by being in general promiscu ous feeders upon animal and vegetable substances, and by laying six eggs in nests built in trees. Some naturalists reckon 41 species ; Gmelin, however, specifies 48. Those most entitled to at tention are the following.
C. corax, the raven. This is the larg est species of the genus, and weighs three pounds, and measures in length two feet, and in breadth four. Itinhabits, in the old continent, from Greenland to the Cape of Good Hope, and in the new, from Canada to Mexico. It will destroy many animals, such as chickens, ducks, and rabbits, and sometimes even lambs, for subsistence, but appears to delight more in the putrid remains of carcases, which are to be almost every where met with on a globe perpetually changing its inhabitants. It may, in this point of view, be regarded as highly serviceable, preventing the contagion of disease in a great degree, as well as the annoyance of the senses. Its smell is particularly acute, enabling it to discriminate its fa vourite repast, though at a great dis tance. Its caution is also extraordinary, as it will rarely venture within the reach of a gun, which it appears to distinguish with particular sagacity. It is long lived, having been stated on respectable autho rity to live from 40 to 60 years. It is easi ly familiarized, but is much addicted to concealing, in holes and bye places, things of no possible advantage to itself, and which the owner is much embarrass ed by the want of. It may be taught to speak. In America it builds in trees ; in some other countries it builds 'in the holes of rocks ; the duty of incubation is performed by the male during the slay, and by the female in the night. 'The Greenlanders make use of it for food, and use its skin inv the manufacture of garments, and its wings for brushes. Its feathers are split by them, and twisted into fishinglines. The raven is the only
species of its genus at present existing in Greenland, which may be considered as an evidence of its robust and hardy con stitution. In times of superstition, this was a bird of most important augury, whose sounds were studied with the most profound attention, and frequently over whelmed even the hero himself with ter ror. See Ayes, Plate 1V. fig. 4.
C. corone, the carrion crow, is very si milar to the raven in habits and colour ; it is the bird so universally known in the United States by the name of crow.
C. frugilegus, the rook. Rooks are, in France and some parts of Germany, birds of passage, but in England they are sta tionary. They live upon various worms and the erucx of insects, particularly those of the chafer, the extirpation of which is of extreme service to the far mer, and far more than compensates for the depredations committed by Those birds themselves on the corn, which they thus usefully preserve from far more de structive plunder. Rooks are gregarious birds, and, unless when breeding, regu larly repair, sometimes in immense flocks, from the place where they roost ed to whatever spot of ground they may fix upon as their grand refectory, return ing as the day closes in the same formida ble body to their former lodging. In February they begin to build their nests, which they do in large societies of many hundreds on the tops of high trees, par ticularly elms. To the curious observer this process is a scene of considerable in terest, exhibiting perpetual bustle and as siduity, incessant struggle and conten tion,.stratagem and violence. Cunning and oppression are in perpetual conflict, art is often successfully substituted for strength, and more frequently power for right. It is a circumstance within the recollection of several persons at New castle, England, that a pair of rooks, who had been interrupted in various efforts to build in a neighbouring rookery, at length 'actually established their nest on the weathervane of, the spire of the ex change, and produced their young to perfection, notwithstanding all the per secutions of their enemies, all the cla morous admiration of the populace, and the movements which they experienced from every shifting breeze of wind. So tenacious were they of this situation, that they returned to it for ten successive years.