SIX months' bird collecting in EGYPT. 1 75 



Ii6. Starling, Sturmis vulgaris, Lian. (Hassclquist 47) ; 



" Zarzur." 



Small flocks seen not unfrequently in the Delta and 

 Middle Egypt.* 



117. BroWxNT-necked Raven, Corvus tunbrinus, 

 Hedenborg. 



A Raven was only once distinctly recognized in the 

 Delta. Up the river they were generally seen in pairs, or 

 gathered together in a flock — sometimes as many as forty 

 together — near some carcase ; and yet I have sometimes 

 seen a large number of them where there was apparently 

 nothing to attract them. They were not particularly hard 

 to shoot, and we had soon got enough. I only once found 

 a nest; it was on a solitary palm tree. The hen sat close. 



Only one of those we shot could strictly be called brown- 

 necked : it was a fine old bird. Some of the others were 

 entirely black, so that it was an excusable error in certain 

 former observers to mistake them for our English Raven. 

 The immature ones are entirely black also. I believe that 

 the variation in size, which I dare say has been noticed by 

 others besides myself, is sexual. One specimen had the 

 nasal feathers a dull yellow, 



Yarrell, in his ist edition (B. B. II., 65), "accredits the 

 English Raven with being found in Egypt. He says that 



* In Norfolk, Starlings pair as early as the 2nd of February. As 

 spring advances the habits of these birds undergo a change. Perched 

 upon an ash tree or the gable of a barn, they raise their neck hackles to 

 one another, and seek rather than avoid the proximity of man. One is 

 surprised at the noise which they now make, and there is no doubt that 

 they imitate other birds, such as Hens, Crows, Jackdaws, Ducks, etc. 

 I never listen to them without feeling convinced that this is what they 

 are really doing, but it all ceases by the ist of May. 



