412 Messrs. R. B. & J. D. S. Woodward's Journeys 



cronyx capensis is the finest of our Larks, and, although it 

 cannot sing, it has a pleasant cry, which it utters as it stands 

 on the top of a white-ant heap, or takes its short flight 

 from one low bush or ants' nest to another. 



There are plenty of Crows about here. The Ring-neck 

 Crow [Corvus albicolUs), the Carrion-Crow of South Africa, 

 is constantly met with on the roads, where it frequents 

 the vicinity of the outspans in the hope of picking up a 

 meal. It is also the constant companion of the Vulture, 

 and helps in demolishing the carcass of a dead ox or horse. 

 It seems to have a special partiality for eggs, which some- 

 times causes it to come to an untimely end by the farmer's 

 gun. It is remarkable how easily these birds can carry off 

 such a slippery object as a hen's egg without cracking it — 

 they sometimes carry one more than a mile before they 

 alight. However, they do more good than harm, and well 

 pay for their occasional depredations. One year our farm 

 was visited by myriads of green caterpillars, which consumed 

 the young grass as soon as it sprouted, and for a time made 

 the hill-sides quite bare of pasture, and it would have been 

 a bad look-out for the cattle had not a large flock of these 

 Crows appeared upon the scene and remained until they had 

 cleared the ground of this pest. They do not seem to resort 

 to vegetable food often in their wild state, and do no harm, 

 so far as we know, to the crops. The young are easily 

 reared, and we have had them walking about the place quite 

 tame. One which we kept for a long time used to roost with 

 the fowls, to some of which it seemed quite friendly, but it 

 occasionally had furious battles with the cocks, which always 

 ended with the discomfiture of the fowl. These Crows, 

 unlike the black species, build in the kranses, and lay two or 

 three large eggs, green, spotted and speckled with brown. 



The Cornland Crow {Corvus capensis) takes the place of 

 the Rook in England, but is a larger bird. It is gre- 

 garious, and when large flocks alight in a field of corn they 

 do considerable damage, but, on the other hand, they destroy 

 numbers of grubs, locusts, and other insects. The young 

 birds are not easy to rear ; they get a disease or weakness of 



