COKVID^ COEVULTUB 11 



land. It ranges across the Zambesi into Nyasaland, Mosambique 

 and German East Africa, and is found on Mount Kilima-njaro, but 

 further north its place is taken by the larger C. crassirostris. 



Habits. Found alike on the coast, among the mountains and 

 on the high veldt, as well as in the Karroo and the sandy wastes of 

 Namaqualand, the " Eing-hals " is one of the most widely dis- 

 tributed and best known birds of South Africa. Where not 

 molested it is a bold and fearless species, frequenting the outskirts 

 of towns and villages and the vicinity of farm-houses, native kraals 

 and outspans, on the look out for offal and scraps of all kinds. 

 When reared from the nest it makes an extremely tame and amus- 

 ing, if somewhat mischievous pet ; it has, in fact, all the habits and 

 idiosyncrasies of the European Eaven ; its ordinary cry, also, a 

 harsh croak, is, to my ear, exactly similar to that of the latter bird. 



In the interior the "Eing-hals" feeds largely on carrion, 

 and is usually the first bird to detect a carcass; on the coast it 

 devours dead fish cast up by the waves, shell-fish of all kinds, the 

 paper-nautilus being a favourite tit-bit, as well as the eggs of 

 penguins and other sea fowl. At times it kills and eats snakes, 

 lizards, frogs and small tortoises. Nor does it disdain an insect 

 diet, beetles, grasshoppers, locusts and termites are all readily 

 devoured, as well as ticks and bots picked from the hides of cattle. 

 I have sometimes amused myself by watching the bold yet cautious 

 and gentle manner in which one of these Eavens will approach a 

 reclining ox, and after a preliminary course of soothing caresses, 

 accompanied by a soft " cawing" note, insert his head into the ear 

 and dexterously extract the ticks. These birds always seem to have 

 a good understanding with the older and more experienced oxen, 

 who will, at a hint from one of them, lie down and place themselves 

 in the most favourable possible position for the extraction of their 

 parasites. 



The Eing-hals is usually a resident in Cape Colony and Natal, 

 and roosts all the year round in or near its nest. This latter is 

 invariably, so far as I have observed, built on a rock or krantz, on 

 a ledge or in a hole. It is large and firmly constructed of dead 

 sticks and twigs mixed with pieces of turf and tufts of grass, and 

 is lined with rootlets, wool, hair, grass and various soft material. 

 The eggs, almost invariably three in number, vary considerably in 

 colour and shape, even in the same nest ; they are of some shade of 

 bluish-white, more or less thickly marked with various shades of 

 olive-brown, and are not to be distinguished with certainty from 



