European, but Mr. Dresser says that, after carefully examining
a large series of specimens, he cannot find any specific distinction.
It is resident in Dauuria and Turkestan, in some
places breeding in the roofs of houses and churches. In the
Caucasus it is abundant and it seems to frequent the Ural
up to the Government of Archangel.
The whole plumage is jet black, glossed with steel blue
which has a violet tinge on the flight-feathers and ta il: the
irides are of two circles, the inner red, the outer blue ; the
eyelids red; the inside of the mouth and the tongue yellow ;
the beak, legs and toes, coral-red ; the claws black.
The male measures nearly seventeen inches in length.
The beak one inch and seven-eighths: the wing from the
carpal joint to the tip eleven inches and three-quarters ; the
third, fourth and fifth primaries are nearly equal, but the
fourth the longest.
A female, sent from Tyneham by Mr. Thomas Bond,
measured fourteen inches and a half in length; the beak one
inch and a half; the wing from the carpal joint to the tip
nine inches and three-quarters ; the wing-quills were not so
decidedly black as those of the male.
Young birds, as Mr. J. Lumsden informed Mr. Dresser,
have the bill and legs at first dull brownish-orange which
turns to reddish-orange and finally becomes red. The plumage
has but little purple gloss until after the first moult.
PASS EXES. CORVID J?.
C o r v u s c o r a x , Linnaeus.*
THE RAYEN.
Corvus corax.
Corvtjs, Linnceus\ .—B eak h a rd , sto u t, compressed, s tra ig h t a t th e base,
arched towards th e point, an d sh a rp a t th e edges. Nostrils basal, generally
hidden by stiff fe a th e rs d ire c ted forwards. Wings long an d g ra d u a te d ; th e first
prim ary much sh o rte r th a n th e second, b u t more th a n h a lf as long as th e th ird ,
th e fo u rth th e longest. Tail more or less graduated.- F e e t strong ; ta rsu s longer
th a n th e middle toe, to which th e o u te r to e is u n ite d as fa r as its first j o i n t ;
claws strong, curv ed a n d sharp.
T h i s , by far the largest British species of the Order
Passeres, and among its exotic members only equalled in
size by two or three allied forms, has heen from very ancient
times one of the best known of birds. The wide range of
the Raven in the northern hemisphere has doubtless also
* Syst. N a t. Ed. 12, i. p. 155 (1766). t Loc. cit.