1922.] Birds of Jliang District. 2G9 



It is remarkable that in both years there seemed to be an 

 unusual number of Ravens about headquarters in September. 

 As the Kaven is reported to bo a winter visitor to Upper 

 Sind, these birds were probably migrants. 



Corvus splendens zeugmeyeri Laubm. (14 skins.) 



An abundant resident, generally distributed wherever there 

 are human habitations. There was a curious strain of 

 albinistic birds frequenting the Civil lines ; two of these were 

 siiot and preserved, and their description will be found in 

 Journal Bombay N. H. Soc. (vol. xxvi. pp. 290 and 843). A 

 similar chocolate-and-cream coloured bird was seen in the 

 same place after their demise, and one or two normal birds 

 with just some white in the primaries were also seen in the 

 same neighbourhood. The chief interest in these birds, to my 

 mind, lay in the fact that they enabled one to realise what a 

 sedentary bird the House-Crow is : with the exception of the 

 usual nightly move to the roosting-place (in Jliang the big 

 trees of the circular road), each individual keeps to a very 

 small area and hardly moves from it. These abnormal birds 

 consorted with their normal brethren and suffered no 

 persecution. 



Small parties of this Crow when on the evening flight, have 

 the habit, so often seen in flocks of Rooks at home, of suddenly 

 swirling down from a height in the sky almost to the ground. 

 Vultures sitting gorged on the ground are frequently worried 

 by Crows, who keep on jumping on to their backs in a sort 

 of game of Tom Tiddler's ground. In a somewhat similar 

 fashion I have seen a Tawny Eagle feeding in a tree much 

 worried by Crows, who ke[)t on stooping at him through the 

 branches and striking with their feet on the back of his wings 

 and tail. The tiny fish which are stranded in pools and cliiin- 

 nels as they dry after the floods of the rains are eaten in 

 great quantities by Crows. 



Fresh eggs are to be found during tlie first half of July. 

 A series of 27 eggs gives the following measurements : — 

 Length 32"5-44, breadth 23-27 mm. ; average measure- 

 ment 36*7 X 25*8 mm. 



