Crows generally inhabit wooded country, but also bare moorlands or sea-coasts; the Nutcracker requires pine-forests–commonly at considerable elevations; and Magpies haunt woods, yet not so invariably as Jays. The whole Family hop, and most forms, except perhaps Jays, walk or run also. All are active birds and fly well, the Chough, Jay, and Nutcracker in more undulating fashion: while soaring is a common practice. Ravens have very deep voices, and croak, "bark," or "grunt"; Jackdaws utter a clear jake-jake; Choughs a ringing, metallic note or a hoarse "chough-chough"; Nutcrackers a "churr-churr"; Magpies a continuous rattle or "chatter." Jays vary their harsh, grating utterances by mimicking other species, the American Blue Jays being notorious adepts, and exhibiting meanwhile fantastic contortions of the head, wings, and tail. Many species, such as Ravens, Magpies, and Jackdaws, learn to imitate sounds when tamed. The Corvidae are almost omnivorous, Ravens and other strong species even attacking weakly ewes or lambs, and preying on small mammals, birds, and reptiles; Hooded and Carrion Crows, Rooks, Magpies. Jackdaws, and Jays suck eggs; while Rooks, though undoubtedly beneficial, also grub up seed-corn and potatoes. An immense amount of insect-life is, however, destroyed, and the larger forms dispose of carrion; the American Corvus ossifragus and C. corone, moreover, will catch living fish. Magpies and Jays feed largely upon the ground, and eat slugs, snails, worms, insects, nuts, acorns, grain, seeds of conifers, and other fruits; Nutcrackers devour quantities of the last; Corvus tropicus, Macrocorax, and Gymnocorax relish fruit. Jays store provisions, and Jackdaws pick insects off cattle. The nests of Crows and Nutcrackers are bulky structures of sticks, lined with soft materials; the rough domed fabric of the Magpie is neatly lined with roots upon a layer of clay; the slighter nests of Choughs and Jays are inlaid with roots and fibres–more rarely with moss, hair, or wool–and every variety is found between these limits. The larger species build in forks and holes in trees, in crevices of rocks and masonry, or rarely in or on the ground; the Chough never chooses trees; Jays nest comparatively low, and often in bushes. Crows' eggs are normally greenish, mottled with darker green, olive, or brownish, but Heterocorax capensis has them pinkish with red spots, while other Crows, Ravens, and Dendrocitta sometimes shew a similar tint. Jackdaws' eggs are bluish-green or white, with dark olive or black markings interspersed with grey; those of Magpies and Nutcrackers have a like ground-colour with greenish-olive and faint brownish spots respectively; those of Jays are greenish, or even bluish, with close olive-green frecklings or zones, and occasional black scrawls at the larger end; those of Choughs are yellowish-white, with light brown and grey markings. The number laid varies from two or three, to as many as nine in Magpies, but is usually four or five. The hens sit rather closely. Ravens sometimes will even attack man at the nest.
Fig. 131.–Huia. Heterolocha acutirostris. × ⅓. (From Nature.)
Of genera doubtfully included in the Family, Picathartes of the Gold Coast is slaty-grey, with brown quills, white under parts, and bare yellow head, shewing black behind each eye; it builds among rocks near forest-streams, and feeds upon reptiles and molluscs. The egg is whitish, clouded and dotted with brown. Callaeas (Glaucopis) cinerea, which is blue-grey, with black on the head, and an orange and blue rictal wattle, and its congener C. wilsoni, with entirely blue wattle, inhabit the lower hill-forests of the South and North Islands of New Zealand respectively. They have deep, rich, long-drawn notes, diversified by "cackles," mews, or "bell-like" sounds, the male performing antics when courting. The food consists of fruit, flowers, and insects; the flight is feeble. The large nests of twigs, moss, and grass are placed in trees; the two or three eggs being purplish-grey with brown blotches or frecklings. Corcorax and Struthidea are peculiar to Australia, the former being glossy black with white on the wing, the latter brownish-grey with black tail.[[297]] Corcorax haunts open forests, brook-sides, and lagoons in little flocks, running about actively, or leaping upon the boughs with motile, outspread tail. The food consists of insects; the note is grating or mournful; while the male courts the female like a Pigeon. The nest, a sort of basin of mud with a straw lining, is fixed on a horizontal branch, and contains from four to seven yellowish-white eggs with olive and purplish-brown markings. Struthidea frequents pine tracts, and has similar habits and nest, the eggs being white with red-brown and grey blotches. In Heteralocha[[298]] acutirostris, the New Zealand Huia, the female has a remarkably long, curved bill, that of the male being short, stout, and nearly straight. The plumage is greenish-black, with a white-tipped tail; the bill is whitish, the feet are blue-grey, the large rictal wattles orange. This bird frequents wooded gullies in the North Island, seldom flying above the foliage, but bounding or hopping along the ground or upon the branches. Natives attract and noose it by imitating the whistling note. The cock chisels away the decayed bark, and the hen probes the crevices for insects; "huhu" caterpillars and berries varying the main diet. The nest, of dry grass, leaves, and stalks, is placed in hollow trees, the eggs being apparently whitish, with or without brown and grey spots. Creadion carunculatus, the Saddle-back of the same country, is black, with chestnut back, rump, wing- and tail-coverts, and small yellow or red gape-wattles. It haunts wooded hills, hopping actively or moving spirally up the trunks and branches, while the flight is short, rapid, and laboured. The notes may be soft and sweet, or noisy and shrill; the food resembles that of Heteralocha. The nest of dry leaves, ferns, fibres, moss, and bark is built in hollow trees or large ferns, the three or four greyish-white eggs shewing purplish-brown markings.
Podoces includes four desert species, with elongated, strong, curved, and pointed bills; long, stout legs; short, rounded wings; and moderate square tails. The colour is fawn, grey, and brown, generally with black and white wings and black tail; P. hendersoni and P. biddulphi have a black cap, the former shewing white spots on it, P. panderi has a black throat-patch, P. humilis is brown with whitish nape and lower parts. They haunt sand-hills covered with saxaul (Anabasis ammodendron) or tamarisk, from Transcaspia to Tibet, running swiftly, occasionally flying like a Jay, feeding on the ground upon insects, their larvae, and seeds, uttering harsh reiterated Woodpecker-like cries, and making a nest of twigs lined with bark, grass, and hair in low trees, bushes, or rarely holes in the ground. The four eggs are greenish-grey with olive spots. P. humilis frequents more grassy ground up to eleven thousand feet.
Fam. XXIV. Sturnidae.–The Starlings, apparently connecting the Corvidae and the Icteridae, are divided by Mr. Oates[[299]] and Dr. Sharpe[[300]] into Eulabetidae (Tree-Starlings) with rictal bristles, more arboreal habits, and usually spotted eggs, and Sturnidae (Starlings proper) where the contrary holds good.[[301]] To these Buphaga may be added for the present, in default of a better position.
The bill is generally long and pointed–especially in Sturnopastor,–but is exceptionally slender in Cinnamopterus, shorter and stouter in Basilornis, Buphaga, Pastor, Pholidauges, and Aplonis; being curved in the last three, and also in Fregilupus and Necropsar; where it is longer. The anteriorly scutellated metatarsus is ordinarily strong, and is shortest in the Tree-Starlings. The wing is usually moderate, with small first primary, though it is more elongated and pointed in Sturnus and Dilophus, rounded in Sturnopastor, Temenuchus, and so forth, short in Coccycolius and Buphaga; the secondaries have long filamentous basal appendages in Psaroglossa, and loose hair-like exterior webs in Onychognathus. The tail varies from short to long, from square to much graduated; it is forked in Sturnia, and may have acuminate feathers; while Macruropsar and Lamprotornis possess exceptionally developed rectrices, L. caudatus having the broad median pair longer than the body. Lanceolate feathers commonly adorn the neck and breast; bushy crests occur in Pastor and Temenuchus, smaller tufts in Sturnia, Basilornis, Enodes, Fregilupus, Graculipica, Sturnornis and Acridotheres cristatellus; recurved plumes may cover the nostrils, as in Acridotheres, Ampeliceps, and Basilornis; while bare chins, orbits, or ear-patches of brown, yellow, and the like are frequent. Charitornis has the throat and cheeks naked; Dilophus the head and throat bare, with two erect wattles above and one below; Sarcops dull-red naked orbits, and merely a narrow feathered line down the crown; Eulabes a yellow post-ocular lappet forking to the back of the eye and the eyebrow, and a yellow patch below; Enodes a broad, superciliary wax-like red line; and Scissirostrum similar crimson feathers on the rump.
Fig. 132.–Starling. Sturnus vulgaris. × ½. (From English Illustrated Magazine.)
Most of the brighter species exhibit purple, coppery, blue and green reflexions, our familiar Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) being iridescent black, with buff marks above, and, after the autumn moult, white spots below. The female is duller, but in this Family the sexes usually differ little. S. unicolor is unspotted. Spodiopsar burmanicus has grey upper and pinkish under parts, with brownish wings and tail, white head, and white-tipped rectrices; Sturnopastor contra is blackish-brown and white above, and greyish beneath, with green-black head and throat and white cheeks; Pastor roseus, which wanders to Britain, is glossy black, with pink back and abdomen; Graculipica melanoptera is almost pure white, with black or bronzy remiges and rectrices. Eulabes religiosa, the Myna,–a name also popularly applied to Acridotheres (sacred to the god Ram Deo) and several other Indian forms,–is black, with purple and green reflexions, and a white patch on the wing-quills; Cinnamopterus tenuirostris is more highly coloured, with mainly chestnut primaries; Melanopyrrhus orientalis adds to its metallic black hue an orange head, neck, rump, and breast; Lamprotornis and the shorter-tailed Lamprocolius exhibit lovely greens, purples, and peacock-blues, relieved by golden-bronze; Coccycolius is golden-green with purple cheeks and abdomen. Pholidauges leucogaster is rich purplish-violet with white belly, the female being brown and buff above, and whitish below with dusky striations; Calornis and Aplonis are usually dullish green; while the extinct Fregilupus varius was ashy-brown, grey, and white. Falculia is white with blue-black back, wings, and tail. It frequents trees or streams, and utters plaintive, melodious notes. Buphaga is dull-brown, with fulvous rump and lower surface. The bill is commonly black throughout the group, but is sometimes red, pinkish, bluish, greenish, orange, or yellow; the feet also vary in colour. Albinos are rather frequent.