Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/139

 family of Finches, (Fringilladæ), which is typical of the whole. The other families are Corvidæ, Paradiseacæ, Sturnidæ, Colidæ, Musophagadæ, and Bucerotidæ.

(Crows.)

These are among the largest of the Passerine birds, but though widely spread, are comparatively few in number. Their beak is very powerful, more or less compressed at the sides, conical, but long, the upper mandible generally arched, the gape nearly straight, the nostrils concealed by stiff bristles pointing forwards. Their plumage is of dark and unobtrusive colours, often black more or less glossed, and occasionally varied with gray or white. The group denominated Jays, however, form an exception to this sombre coloration, for they are mostly arrayed in the richest azure and purple. These too are more exclusively arboreal than the other Corvidæ, which walk a great deal on the ground.

The Crows are birds of firm and compact structure; their wings are long, pointed, and powerful; their feet and claws robust. In disposition they are bold and daring, extremely sagacious, easily tamed and made familiar. Most of them have the faculty of imitating the sounds which they hear, and even the words of human language, with much precision, but their natural voices are loud, harsh, and guttural. They evince a remarkable propensity for thieving, and hiding substances that are of no use whatever to them, particularly if