136 CORVULTUR ALBICOLLIS 



Namaqualand, the ' King-lials ' is one of the most widely 

 distributed and best known birds of Soutli Africa. Where 

 not molested it is a bold and fearless species, frequenting the 

 outskirts of towns and villages, and the vicinity of farmhouses, 

 native kraals and outspans, on the look-out for offal and scraps 

 of all kinds. "When reared from the nest it makes an 

 extremely tame and amusing, if sometimes mischievous, pet ; 

 it has, in fact, all the habits and idiosyncrasies of our 

 European Raven ; its ordinary cry, also a harsh croak, is, to 

 my ear, exactly similar to that of the latter bird. 



" In the interior the ' Eing-hals ' feeds largely on carrion, 

 and is usually the first bird to detect a carcass ; on the coast 

 it devours dead fish cast up by the waves, shell-fish of all 

 kinds, the paper-nautilus being a favourite tit-bit, as well as 

 the eggs of penguins and other sea-fu\\l. At times it kills and 

 eats snakes, lizards, frogs and small tortoises. Nor does it 

 disdain an insect diet, beetles, grasshoppers, locusts and 

 termites arc all readil}" devoured, as well as ticks and bots 

 picked from the hides of cattle. I have sometimes amused 

 myself by watching the bold, yet cautious and gentle manner 

 in \\ hich one of these Eavens will approach a reclining ox, and 

 after a preliminary course of soothing caresses, accompanied 

 by a soft ' carving ' note, insert his head into the ear and 

 dexterously extract the ticks. These birds always seem to 

 have a good understandmg with the older and more experi- 

 enced oxen, who will, at a hint from one of them, he down 

 and place themselves in the most favourable possible position 

 for the extraction of their parasites. 



" The ' Eing-hals ' is usually a resident in Cape Colony and 

 Natal, and roosts all the year round in or near its nest. This 

 latter is invariabl}', so far as I have observed, built on a rock 

 or krantz, on a ledge, or in a hole. It is large and firmly 

 constructed of dead sticks and twigs mixed w illi pieces of turf 



