3. coRVUs. 19 



a. Imm. sk. Egypt, March 9, 18G8. Capt.G. E.Shelley [P.]- 



b. Ad. sk. Shore of the Dead Sea. Canon Tristram [CI. 



c. 2 ad. sk. Jerusalem. Canon Tristram [C.j. 



d. J ad. sk. Mesopotamia. Eiiphi-ates Exped. [C.]. 



e. 2 ad. sk. Gsvader, Baluchistan, Jan. 14, W. T. Blanford, Esq. 



1872. [C.]. 



f. c? ad. sk. Near Dizak,Baluehistan,March W. T. Blanford, Esq. 



25, 1872. [C.]. 



ff. Ad. sk. Quetta, Afghanistan (Griffith). Secretary of State for 



India [P.]. 



h. Jun. sk. Quetta, Afghanistan (Grijfith). Secretary of State for 



India [P.]. 



i. Ad.sk. Ferozei^ove (Capt. Say). Secretary of State for 



India [P.]. 



3. Corvus leptonyx. 



Corvus corax, Webb ^- Berth. Orn. C'anar. p. 9 ; Harcourt, Ann. 



Nat. Hist. (2) xv. p. 487 ; Loche, Expl. Sci. Ak/er. Ois. i. p. 108. 

 Corvus leptonyx, Peule, U.S. E.ipl. Rip. 1848, p! lOo. 

 Corvus ruticollis, C'a^s. op. cit. p. 116, pi. v. 

 Corvus tingitauus, Irbt/, Ibis, 1874, p. 264 ; Dresser, B. Eur. parts 



xxxvi., xxxviii.; Irbij, B. Gibr.Tp. 126. 



Adult nude. General colour above steel-black with a purplish 

 gloss, especially on the scapulars and quills ; the secondaries bronzy 

 brown, probably the remains of previous plumage ; tail purplish 

 black, with a slight greenish tinge on the inner webs, this being 

 faintly indicated on the inner webs of the secondaries also ; head all 

 round and under surface of the body black, with a distinct purplish 

 steel gloss ; the ear-coverts and feathers of the throat and thighs 

 faintly glossed with green ; bill and feet black. Total length 20 

 inches, culmen 2-7, wing 15-7, tail 9-1, tarsus 2-S5. 



There can be little doubt that, if Pcale's specimen of C. leptonyx 

 really came from Madeira (as seems to be unquestionably the case), 

 his name must be employed for the species instead of C. tinyitanus 

 of Irby, since Mr. Godman obtained in Teneriffe a specimen which 

 is inseparable from Marocean examples of C. tingitanus, and he says 

 that this same species is " occasionally found in Madeira." The 

 only difficulty in accepting the identity of these two species lies in 

 the fact that in the plate of C. leptony.v the bird is described and 

 figured as brown on the head and neck, which fact induced the late 

 Mr. Cassin to refer it to C. ritJicoUis of Lesson. Lately, however, 

 Professor Barboza du Bocage has shown, in a most carefully written 

 essay, that the latter species is a bird of the Cape-Terd archipelago, 

 and is in all probability distinct from C leptonyx of Peale. In this 

 view I am disposed to agree ; and I believe that the brown colour on 

 the head and neck in the type of C. leptonyx is caused by the worn 

 plumage of the specimen, as I am quite certain it is in the wings of 

 those which Colonel Irby brought from Tangier. It is therefore 

 not a specific character in C. tinyitanus. I believe the Xorth-Africau 

 Raven to be a distinct sjtecies, allied to C. corax, of which it is a 



