CROWS 61 



and vultures ; and any stray corpses that may float 

 down the river usually carry them as passengers. 

 Human corpses are, fortunately not nearly so often 

 to be seen in the Hugli as they used formerly 

 to be; but, when one does come drifting along, it 

 generally conveys one or two of these black ghouls, 

 excavating in it with their great beaks and now and 

 then cawing aloud with sombre satisfaction. 



Their ordinary call is very distinct from that of 

 the crows, being a high-pitched, prolonged " Keeah," 

 in place of a short querulous caw, but they have an- 

 other strangely grunting note oddly like the sound 

 uttered by buffaloes. The common call is very 

 characteristic, and at once announces the presence 

 of one or two corbies even when the air is ringing 

 with the cries of hosts of common crows. They 

 never build in colonies, like those of the crows, but 

 isolated nests are to be met with in trees in the 

 outskirts of Calcutta at the same time of year that 

 their relatives are building. The eggs bear a close 

 resemblance to those of the crow, but are of con- 

 siderably larger size. During winter, like many 

 other animals, they rejoice in the rise in temperature 

 that takes place when the sun gets up in the 

 morning, and in order to get the benefit of it as 

 early and as fully as possible, they usually take up 

 positions on the summits of lofty trees when the 

 light is growing. There they sit on exposed 

 branches, sunning and warming themselves and 



