The Royfton Crow. Cornix Cinerea.
Numb. XXIII.
I T S Weight twenty two Ounces; its Length from the Point of the Bill
to the End of the Tail, was twenty two Inches; Breadth when the
Wings were extended three Foot and three Inches.
The Bill from the Point to the Angles of the Mouth two Inches and
a half,' ftrong,' • fmooth, black, but having a whitifh T ip ; the upper
Chap fomewhat longer than the lower, and a little bowed or crooked ;
the Nofirils round covered with briftly Hairs; the Tongue broad, black,
and a little cloven, and rough on the Sides ; the Irides of the Eyes or
a cinereous hazel Colour. , , t -t
The Head, Wings, and Throat as far as the Breaft-Bone black, with
a certain blue Glofs; the breaft, Belly, Back, and Neck cinereous or
grey, the Shafts of the Feathers being blackiih; the Feathers °n the
Throat where the black and cinereous meet have their exteriour Sides
cinereous, and their interiour black; the Back is fomewhat of a darker
Aih-Colour than the Belly. . . .
It hath in each Wing twenty Mafter-Feathers, of which the firit is
the ihorteft, the third, fourth, and fifth equal; from the fixth the
Shafts being produced above the Feathers end in iharp Points; the I ail
confifts of twelve Feathers, the exteriour whereof were gradually fome-
thing ihorter than the interiour to the middlemoft, which were feven
Inches and a half long. . . . . r
The back Toe and Claw are large; the exteriour a n d interiour tore
Toes equal; and their Claws reach as far as the Root of the Claw ot
the middle Toe, the outmoft and middle Toe are joined at the Bottom
asr in the Crow. ,
The Liver is divided into Lobes; the Stomach or Gizzard large>
in it when diflbded fall of Wheat, Barley, and other Grain: They are
infefted with Lice and Ticks. .
In the Summer time (faith Aldrovandus) it lives on high Mountains,
where it alfo breeds, in the Winter, compelled as is likely by the Cold, it
defcends into the Plains, on the Heaths about Newmarket, Royjion, and
elfewhere in Cambridgeshire it is frequently leen in Winter lim e : 1
have likewife feen many of them about Hackney near London
2