22 CORVID#. 
Palestine. It is not easy to separate the breeding ranges of 
ruficollis and laurencei, but the former appears to be essentially a 
bird of deserts and bare hills whilst the Panjab Raven is more 
a bird of wooded country, though both are great wanderers and 
overlap ove another constantly in their non-breeding haunts. 
Nidification. This Raven makesa large nest of sticks, sometimes 
lined with a little wool, leaves or smaller, softer twigs and places 
it near the top of a tree either in the open or in thin forest. The 
eggs number from four to six, generally four or five and are a 
pale blue-green marked with deep brown and with underlying 
marks of pale grey and neutral tint. The markings are usually 
thickly distributed over the whole surface but are sometimes 
bolder and blacker and more sparse, making the eggs very hand- 
some in appearance. They are typically rather long « ovals. They 
average about 50°7x33°6 mm. The breeding season is from 
the end of December to early March. 
a 
Fig. 2.—A throat-hackle of the Raven of Sikkim (a) and of the 
Raven of the Punjab (2). 
Habits. ‘he Punjab Raven is a very bold, confiding bird and 
has all the habits of the Common Crow, attending camps and 
villages and going about without fear but with the wariness of 
his tribe. Hume has noticed how a large number of Ravens die 
annually in the autumn on their first arrival in Sind from no 
apparent cause. This form of Raven will not be found far 
from trees in the breeding season, nor does it haunt hills and 
mountains of any great elevation, though it has been found at 
about 6,000 feet in the Simla Hills by Mr. P. Dodsworth. 
