CORVUS ALBUS 147 



which infest their hides. Some of the notes of this Crow, 

 more especially on a raw misty morning, are absurdly singular 

 and ridiculous. In the heat of the day nearly all the birds 

 of this kind found in a limited locality will join in circling 

 round and round for hours together, sometimes ascending 

 to a very great height." Their nests, he remarks, much 

 resembled those of the Kites. 



Stark writes : " Its usual note is a harsh croak, but, like 

 many of the Crows, it has a singular variety of cries, especially 

 in Spring, many of them sounding as if the bird were about 

 to choke or was trying to call with its mouth full of food. 

 The nest, built in September in Cape Colony, is a large basket 

 work of sticks and twigs, lined with wool and other soft 

 material. It is usually placed in a tree, but occasionally 

 on the ledge of a krantz. The eggs, from four to six in 

 number, are bluish-green, spotted and streaked, especially 

 towards the larger end, with different shades of olive-brown 

 They measure 1"65 x 1"15." The Colonels Butler and 

 Feilden and Captain Eeid, write from Natal : " Note extremely 

 guttural and hoarse, only to be compared to that of a frog 

 with a bad cold ! Nest in both trees and rocks. Eeid took a 

 nest in a ' krantz ' close to Newcastle, containing four eggs, on 

 October 9 ; the old birds, nothing daunted, built another nest 

 on a ledge of rock close by, and in twelve days one of them 

 was sitting on a fresh clutch of eggs. It is worthy of note 

 that the first nest was so compactly built, though to all 

 appearance a most flimsy construction, that it was lifted 

 bodily from its site by the end of one of its component 

 sticks, and that the lining consisted solely of a mass of pieces 

 of ox hide (evidently torn from a carcass), weighing quite 

 two pounds." 



T. E. Buckley, during his journey through the Transvaal 

 and Matabeleland, found this species and Corvultur albicoUis, 



