168 Lt.-Col. Sir O. B. St. John on the Birds 



130. CoRvus UMBRiNus, Hedenb. 



It requires sharper eyes tlian mine to tell this bird and the 

 last apart without a nearer approach than they will usually 

 allow^ and it is consequently not very easy to get an accurate 

 notion of their migrations. At first I was under the impres- 

 sion that C. uinbrinus only remained in the vicinity of Kan- 

 dahar and Quetta during the summer^ and that all birds of 

 that species left in the winter for warmer climes ; but this is 

 at best only partially true. It is certain, however, that 

 C. umbi^inus is far commoner in summer than in winter, the 

 reverse being the case with C. corax. In 1879 I failed to obtain 

 C. corax in Kandahar during the summer^ and did not see it 

 till September, when I found numbers travelling down the 

 Tarnak valley. In October C. umbrinus was not to be found 

 about Kelat-i-Ghilzai, and on my return to Kandahar I 

 found C. corax common there. In 1880, the Maiwand year, 

 I had too much to do to spend time in shooting crows ; but 

 in 1881 I sacrificed a great many in Quetta during the sum- 

 mer without getting more than one C. corax, which, how- 

 ever, was breeding in numbers about the Khojak pass (7200 

 feet) . Last year I had better opportunities of observation, 

 and found both birds in summer and winter alike, C. um- 

 brinus being more numerous in summer about the station of 

 Quetta and C. corax in winter. About the mountains C. corax 

 is always more common. Except when breeding, both kinds 

 are as sociable as Rooks. In a small orchard of fruit-trees 

 at Quetta thousands roost every night in summer and 

 autumn, the trees being black with them. This colony dis- 

 appears in the winter. Indeed, I doubt if any individual 

 Raven is a permanent inhabitant. All that breed in our 

 province probably migrate in the cold weather, C. corax to 

 Sind and C. umbrinus, for the most part, to the Mekran coast 

 and Arabia. 



131. CoRvus coRNix, Linn. 



The Hooded Crow is a rare winter visitant to Kandahar, 

 but does not come further south. 



132. CoRVUS FRUGILEGUS, LiuU, 



Two or three large flocks extend their winter migrations 



