1921.] tlie Near East and Tropical East Africa. 627 



birds are brown and not grey on the l)ack, whereas birds from 

 northern Europe have scarcely changed at all. In Egypt, 

 I shot many dozen Hooded Crows from April to Jidy, and 

 found that by the latter month adults were as brown as 

 Palestine birds and were indistinguishable from them. 



On colour alone I therefore unite all these birds. But in 

 size one finds that birds from northern, western, and 

 central Europe are larger than those from the Balkans, 

 Sardinia, Corsica, Palestine, and Egypt. I deal with birds 

 from Crete and Cyprus later on, as they differ in plumage- 

 colour and constitute a ])aler race. 



The larger northern race is, of course, 



Corvus comix comix L. 



S . Wing 316-340 ; culnien, length 49-60, height 19-5-22. 



? . Wing 305-331 ; culmen, length 49-54, height 19-21. 



The small southern race becomes 



Corvus comix sardonius Kleinschm., 1903. 



Corvus (ifiyptiaca Brehm, 1853, noin. nnd. : Egypt. 



C. c. sardonius Kleinschm., 1903 : Sardinia. 



C. c. valachus Tschusi, 1904 : Rumania. 



C. c. halcajiicus Rzehak, 1906 : Balkans. 

 ? C. c. kaukasicus Gengler^ 1919 : Caucasus. 



C. c. syriaciis Gengler, 1919 : Jerusaleni. 



C. c. judceus Meinertzhagen, 1919 : S. Palestine. 



c^ . Wing 280-324* ; culmen, length 50-59, height 16'5-22. 



? . Wing 278-317 ; culmen, length 42-59, height 17-20. 



Now birds from Cyprus appear to agree well with 

 C. c. sardonius in size, but are paler, which colour is quite 

 distinct in fresh autumn plumage. Four birds have measure- 

 ments as follows : — 



1 S . Wing 292 ; culmen, length 55, height 20. 



3 ? . Wing 295-298 ; culmen, length 48-53, height 17-20. 



Stresemann (Avif. Macedon.) gives the wings of two 

 Cyprus birds as 285-289, whilst Madarasz gives the wings 

 of eleven birds as 288-313. 



* Oace 331 (Fgypt) and once 333 (Rumania). 



