OMNIVOROUS BIRDS.
Beak middle-sized, robust, sharp on the edges, the sip per mandible more or less notched at the point ; feet fur nished with four toes, namely, three before and one behind, wings moderate, with the quill feathers terminating in a point.
The birds which compose this order, usually live in flocks; a single female suffices for a male ; they nidificate on trees, in the holes of old ruins and towers, or in natu ral holes in trees or rocks ; the male and female incubate alternately ; they live on insects, worms, offals, grains, fruits, &c. and their flesh is generally hard, tough, and unsavoury.
Ste. CROW TRIBE.
Bill strong, upper mandible a little convex, edges cul trased, and in most species slightly notched near the tip ; nostrils covered with bristles reflected over them ; tongue divided at the end ; three toes forward, one backward, that in the middle joined to the outer, as far as the first joint ; feet formed for walking. The characteristics of the fa mily ought, however, to be viewed with a considerable degree of limitation, especially since recent ornithologists have added many species that are but imperfectly known. Some of the tribe are found in almost every climate. They are social and clamorous, nidificate in trees, and live on grain, seeds, insects, worms, Sac. Some of them are apparently prejudicial to the interests of the husbandman; but their service in diminishing the quantity of noxious vermin, probably more than counterbalances the waste with which they are chargeable. Their voice, or note, is generally hoarse, and, to most ears, far from pleasant ; but some species possess a considerable degree of docility, and may be taught to articulate in the manner of parrots. For the most part they are sagacious, active, and faithful to one another, living in pairs, and forming a sort of so ciety, in which there appears something like a regular government and concert in the warding off threatened danger.
C. Corax, Lin. Sac. Raven, Corby, of the Scotch. Deep black, the upper parts with a bluish gloss, tail somewhat rounded. The young, when hatched, incline to whitish, The ordinary length of the bird is about twenty two inches and a half, its stretch of wing about three feet, and its weight thirty-five or thirty-six ounces, the female being three or four ounces heavier. Like birds of prey, it is furnished with a strong bill, and with long vigorous wings.
As the raven has a lofty flight, and is capable of sus taining every temperature, the wide world is open to its range ; and it is found from the polar circle to the Cape of Good Hope, and the island of Aladagascar. The crews of the Mascarm and Castries killed ravens in every re spect similar to those of France, on the southern point of Van Diemen's Land, and Vancouver found them at Port Bodegu, in the same country. Their voracity is scarcely less indiscriminate than their residence. In Greenland, they usually haunt the neighbourhood of the sea, assem bling in troops, during winter, around the huts of the na tives, plundering the provisions, devouring the offals, or even, from hunger, pulling the leathern canoes to pieces. On the north-west coast of Hudson's Bay, in Kanitschat ka, &c. they prey in concert with the white bear, the arc tic fox, and the eagle, greedily seizing the eggs of other birds, shore-fish, and such testaceous and crustaceous animals as happen to be within their reach. With these last they will soar into the air, and drop them on a rock, so as to break the shells, and get at the contents, but when fa mished, they swallow_shells and all. In their attempts to plunder the eggs of puffins and oyster-catchers, they often meet with determined and even fatal enemies in the parent birds. By picking out the eyes of young lambs,
they readily dispatch them, and gorge themselves with their prey ; for, though they can resist for a consider able time the importunate calls of hunger, they will glut themselves when an opportunity offers, retire to digest, and return again to feed. They are known to frequent• woody places, in the neighbourhood of towns, for the sake of carrion, and other refuse on which they feed. They are also unsparing of ducklings and chickens, and have even been known to destroy sickly sheep. The alleged instances of their extraordinary acuteness of smell may perhaps be more sansfactority explained, from their un common quickness and power of vision, which enable them to perceive prey and other objects almost instan taneously, and from a great distance. Insects and earth worms are their more ordinary Tare; but their habits have often been confounded with those of the carrion crow. The genuine mountain raven is not a bird of pas sage, but manifests, on the contrary, an attachment to the rock on which it was bred, or rather to that on which it has paired, which is its ordinary residence, an4 which it never entirely abandons. When it descends into the plains, it is for the purpose of procuring subsistence ; and this happens more rarely in summer than in winter. These birds do not, like the carrion crows, pass the night in the woods, but select among the mountains a retreat shelter ed from the northern blast, under the natural alcoves that are formed by the recesses and projections of the rocks. Thither they retire in the night, in flocks of fifteen or twenty, and sleep on the bushes that grow between the rocks. In February or March, they build their nests in the crevices, or in holes of walls, on the tops of de serted towels, or in the forks of large trees. The nest, which is very large, consists of three distinct layers of materials ; the first, or outermost, being composed of branches and roots of shrubs; the second, of the frag ments of the bones of quadrupeds, and other hard sub stances ; and the third of a soft lining of grass, moss, or other stuffing. The female lays from two to six, and even sometimes eight eggs, of a pale bluish green, marked with numerous spots and streaks of brown and ash-colour, and somewhat larger than those of the carrion crow. The incubation lasts about twenty days, during which period the male assiduously waits on his mate, and not only pro vides her with abundance of food, but relieves her in turn, -taking her place in the nest during part of the day. The female, however, according to the observations of Otho Fabricius, sits on the eggs all night, and the male roosts in the immediate neighbourhood. The same pair nestle, it is alleged, in the same situation every year, unless much molested, or driven from their haunts. The young are hatched with a portion of the yolk of the egg included in the abdomen, and which flows insensibly into the intes tines by a particular duct ; but, after a few days, the mo ther feeds them with the proper aliments, which under go a preparation in her crop, and are then disgorged into their bills, in a manner similar to what takes place with pigeons. The male, meanwhile, not only caters for the family, but watches for its safety. If he perceives a kite. or other rapacious bird, approaching the nest, the danger stimulates his courage, he takes wing, soars abm e the in vader, and, dashing downwards, strikes violently with his bill ; both contend for the mastery, and sometimes mount entirely out of sight, until, overcome with fatigue, one or both will fall to the ground.