14 CORVID^ CORVUS 



wild animals and frees them of various insect pests. There is 

 indeed very little that this Crow will not eat. 



Its usual note is a harsh croak, but, like many of the Crows, it 

 has a singular variety of cries, especially in Spring, many of them 

 sounding as if the bird were about to choke or was trying to call 

 with its mouth full of food. 



The nest, built in September in Cape Colony, is a large basket 

 work of sticks and twigs lined with wool and other soft material. 

 It is usually placed in a tree, but occasionally on the ledge of a 

 krantz. The eggs, from four to six in number, are bluish-green, 

 spotted and streaked, especially towards the larger end, with 

 different shades of olive-brown. They measure 1'65 x 1-15. 



3. Coryus capensis. Black Grow. 



La Corneille du Cap, Levaill. Ois. dAfr. ii, pi. 52 (1799). 



Corvus capensis, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 20 (1823) ; Gray, Gen. Birds, 



ii, p. 315 (1847) ; Gurney in Anderssorts B. Damara Land, p. 155 



(1872) ; Holub and Pelzein, Orn. Siidafr. p. 370 (1882) ; Shelley, B. 



Afr. i, p. 46 (1896). 

 Corvus segetum, Temm. PI. Col. (1828) ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 163 



(1867). 

 Heterocorax capensis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iii, p. 12 (1877) ; id. ed. 



Layards B. S. Afr. pp. 415, 845 (1884). 



" Koren-land Kraai " (Corn-land Crow) of the Dutch. 

 South African Book. 



Description. Adult male and female. Entirely black, glossed 

 with purple on the back, wings, and under surface, with greenish 

 on the quills. 



Iris dark brown ; bill and feet dark horn-colour. 



Length 18-00; wing 13-80; tail 7-70; tarsus 2-70; culmen 250. 



Young. Browner and without gloss. 



Distribution. North-east, East, Central and South Africa. 

 Birds from South-east and Central Africa being smaller, have been 

 named C. capensis minor by Heuglin. In South Africa this Crow 

 is locally distributed, being common in some localities, entirely 

 absent from others. It is most abundant in Cape Colony, the 

 Orange Free State, and Upper Natal. It does not visit the coast 

 of Natal and is very irregularly distributed in the Transvaal and 



