254 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



where it was doubtless breeding. Reid obtained two males 

 there and saw several others. They were very noisy and 

 restless, and came close to him, uttering a harsh scolding cry. 

 Butler observed a Drongo Shrike in a densely wooded ravine 

 about three miles north of Colenso, but unfortunately had no gun 

 with him at the time. He thinks it was, in all probability, 

 Dicrurus musicus, agreeing well with the description of that 

 species in Layard's first edition. It was quite tame, and he 

 watched it hawking for insects for several minutes close to him. 



Corvultur albicollls (Lath.), White-collared Raven. — Widely 

 distributed, though somewhat local. As many as fifty were 

 frequently seen together on deserted camping-grounds at Maritz- 

 burg in April. Though by no means absent in the intervening 

 districts, it was not met with in any great numbers on the march 

 up country at that time of the year ; the camp at Newcastle, 

 however, seemed to have drawn together the scattered parties, for 

 they were common there throughout the winter months. We 

 were, unfortunately, unable to investigate their breeding habits, 

 but it seems certain that they breed all along the Drakensberg in 

 October and November, as Butler noticed several isolated pairs 

 scattered about the hills at that season; and early in October, Reid 

 came suddenly on a large number of them, paired but still 

 gregarious, on the Zulu side of Rorke's Drift, which were 

 evidently nesting there, in a steep " krantz." 



Corvus scapulatus, Daud., White-bellied Crow. — Scattered 

 throughout the colony, but not observed below Howick. Seen 

 in small parties, keeping together ; also in pairs. Note extremely 

 guttural and hoarse, only to be compared to that of a frog with a 

 bad cold ! Nests in both trees and rocks. Reid took a nest in a 

 " krantz " close to Newcastle, containing four eggs, on the 9th 

 October ; the old birds, nothing daunted, built another nest on a 

 ledge of rock close by, and in twelve days one of them was 

 sitting on a fresh clutch of eggs. It is worthy of note that the 

 first nest was so compactly built, though to all appearance a most 

 flimsy construction, that it was lifted bodiby from its site by the 

 end of one of its component sticks, and that the lining consisted 

 solely of a mass of pieces of ox-hide (evidently torn from a 

 carcase), weighing quite two pounds. The eggs agreed exactly 

 with Layard's description. Butler noted it as specially abundant 

 between Colenso and Estcourt, but found it far less numerous 



