The next group of perching birds are the cone-beaked. This group
includes the large family of the Crows to which the birds of paradise
of New Guinea are allied; that of the Finches, with their relations
from every clime; and the Hornbills, remarkable for the size and
strength of their bills. The first two cases (62, 63) devoted to this
group, contain the varieties of the Crow family. Here the visitor
should notice the finely-marked jays from various parts of the world;
the noisy and piping rollers of Australia and New Guinea; the crows,
rooks, and jackdaws from various parts of Europe; the New Zealand
wattle bird; the African changeable crow; and the rufous crow of
India. The next case (64) is bright with the gleaming plumage of the
New Guinea crows, or birds of paradise; and here, too, are the curious
grakles--the foetid and the bare-necked from South America; and the
Alpine and red-legged crows, or choughs, of elevated lands. Next in
succession is a case (65) in which are grouped the shining thrushes of
Australia, Asia, and Africa, which include the ingenious and tasteful
satin bower birds, that form decorated bowers of twigs and shells to
sport in; and here amid the grakles of the Indian Archipelago will be
found those curious birds, that gather their sustenance from insect
larvas which secrete in the coarse skin of the rhinoceros: these birds
are known under the name of African beef-eaters. The Starlings, which
are also of the crow family, are grouped in the case (66) next to that
in which the visitor found the beef-eaters and shining thrushes. They
resemble the beef-eaters closely in their mode of life, like them
deriving their food from the insect life that congregates upon various
kinds of cattle. Starlings are found in all the quarters of the globe,
and present many varieties, as the observer of the case under notice
will see. Here are the rose-coloured thrushes of Europe; the grakles
of Malabar, India, South Africa, and South America; and the stares of