CORVUS EDITH.E 151 



generally to be met -with singly or in pairs, frequenting the 

 native villages, the palm groves, where they feed upon the 

 dates, or the pasture land where they search for insects and 

 grubs amongst the herds of cattle and camels. Mr. A. L. 

 Butler writes : " The Brown-necked Eaveii is common on the 

 sandy and gravelly deserts of the Northern and Western 

 Soudan, but is scarce in the cotton-soil country. Along the 

 Desert railway from Haifa to Khartoum it is always to be 

 seen ; it is abundant behind Khartoum, attracted by the 

 garba.ge from the town ; and is constantly met with on the 

 deserts and Jebels of Kordofan. I did not see it once on the 

 Binder, Eahad, Atbara or Setit Elvers (March to May, 1904)." 

 They breed both in trees and on rocks, for in Egypt my 

 late friend, E. Cavendish Taylor, found a nest in the centre 

 of the crown of a Date-palm near Assuan in March with four 

 eggs and another one, with live eggs, on one of the pyramids 

 of Ghizah. The eggs closely resemble those of the Common 

 Eaven and measure about 1'55 x l"-25. 



Corvus edithae. 



Corvus edithae, Phillips, Bull. B. 0. C. iv. p. 36 (lb95) Somali ; Shelley, 

 B. Atr. I. No. 638 (1896) ; Eeichen. Yog. Afr. ii. p. 633 (1903) ; iii. 

 p. 836 (1905). 



Corvus corax edithae, Kleinschmidt, J. f. 0. 1906, p. 87, pi. 1. 



Adult. Extremely similar in general colourii)j,' to C. umhiinus, but differ 

 in having the greater basal portion of all the feathers of the neck and chest 

 pure white, while in C. umbrinus all the feathers are alike in having their 

 base pale dusky; the bill is also slightly shorter in C. cdithcz. Total length 

 18 inches, culmen 2-0, wing 13-8, tail 7-3, tarsus 1-3. 2 , 18. 1. 97, 

 Berbera (L. Phillips). 



Edith's Crow ranges over Somaliland and westward to 

 Lake Eudolf. 



This bird was named after Miss Edith Cole, who accom- 

 panied Mr. Lort Phillips' party into Somaliland when he 



