HETEROCORAX CAPENSIS. 415 
Fam. CORVIDZA. 
397. Hererocorax carensis (Licht). African Rook. 
Corvus segetum, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 168. 
This species never approaches Cape Town, but appears to be 
otherwise generally distributed. We have seen it in considerable 
numbers near Caledon and the Knysna, and have received it from 
Kuruman ; but it is not mentioned in Mr. Rickard’s lists from Port 
Elizabeth or East London. It is called by the colonists Koren- 
land Kraai, lit. “ Corn-land Crow,” and keeps more to the culti- 
vated land than do the other Crows; but it will not disdain to eat 
carrion when its natural food, which consists of grubs, is scarce. It 
breeds in trees, making a large nest of sticks, and laying from three 
to five eggs, of a light pink colour, spotted with dark brown pink: 
axis, 2'’ 2’’’; diam., 1’’ 2’’’. It has not been recorded from Natal. 
According to Mr. F. H. Guillemard, it is pretty abundant in the Free 
State. Mr. T. E. Buckley noticed it on his Matabili journey, but it 
was not so common as OC. scapulatus. Mr. Ayres has found it in 
Natal. Mr. Andersson gives the following account of its habits :— 
**T found this Crow very common in Ondonga, where it nests. In 
Damara Land it is very local and nowhere common ; but it is more 
frequent in Great Namaqua Land, especially towards the Orange 
River; and in the Cape Colony it abounds. In Damara Land, 
where, till lately, the natives never cultivated the ground, it is a shy 
bird, and I never saw it there near the native villages; but in the 
Cape Colony it is pretty sociable, frequenting the cultivated land, 
where it resorts to the vicinity of domestic buildings, and sometimes 
follows in the wake of the plough in search of insects and larve, 
which constitute its chief food, though it is said that it will also 
feast upon carrion, and will sometimes plunder the crops of maize. 
It is usually found in small flocks, and is a clamorous bird, uttering 
harsh choking sounds, just as though its crop were too full. The 
nests of this species, which I observed in Ondonga, were built on 
palm trees; the eggs have a buffy ground-colour, and are thickly 
sprinkled with spots, some of which are reddish and others brown, 
giving the entire egg more or less of a pinking hue.” Mr. Ortlepp 
says that they roost together in large flocks in a clump of willows 
