PASSE RES. COR VIDJE.
C orvus co ro n e , Linnaeus*.
THE BLACK CROW.
Corvus corone.
E v id e n c e accumulated during many years, through the
observation of ornithologists of many countries and of
many schools, seems at last to compel the conclusion that
no specific distinction can be maintained between the birds
long known scientifically as Corvus cor one and Corvus
cornix, and in English as the Black or Carrion-Crow and
the Grey, Hooded or Royston Crow. True it is that each
for the most part may be readily recognized from the other
by its different coloration, that each has a different range
and, to some extent, slightly different habits ; but when we
* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 155 (1766).
PASSE RES. CORVIDS.
C orvus c o r n ix , Linnaeus*.
THE GREY CROW.
Corvus cornix.
find that, in the districts in which both occur, they breed
together commonly and indiscriminately, that the offspring
sometimes combine the characters of both parents, and
sometimes favour one or the other of them, or that in the
same brood all three phases appear, or again that the progeny
of parents belonging to one form may present all the
characteristics of the other, it seems almost impossible foi a
scientific naturalist to retain the time-honoured belief that
the two forms are distinct species. Though the Editor utters
this opinion with some diffidence, that diffidence chiefly
* Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 156 (1766).