577 



CORVUS UMBKINUS. 



(BROWN-NECKED RAVEN.) 



"Corvus umbrinus, Hedenborg, in MS.," Sundevall, K. Vet. Ak. Handl. 1838, p. 199. 

 Corvus infumatus, Wagn. Miinch. gel. Anz. (1838), fide Finsch & Hartlaub, Vog. Ost-Afr. 



p. 373 (1870). 

 Corvus corax, E. C. Taylor, Ibis, 1859, p. 49 (nee Linn.). 



Corax umbrinus (Hedenb.), A. E. Brehm, Erg. Reis. Habesch, pp. 216 et 319 (1863). 

 Corvus corax, Leith Adams, Ibis, 1864, p. 22 (nee Linn.). 

 Corone umbrinus (Hedenb.), G. R. Gray, Hand-list, ii. p. 12. no. 6199 (1870). 



Ghurab el nohi, Arabic. 



Figura nulla. 



Chalybeo-niger : capite, collo abdomineque ex parte nitide umbrinis : rostro nigro, pedibus nigro-fuscis : 

 iride fusca. 



Adult Male (Egypt) . Head and neck glossy dark umber-brown ; feathers on the neck white at the base ; 

 upper and underparts generally jet-black, with a steely violet gloss, the underparts intermixed here and 

 there with a few dark umber-brown feathers; wings and tail glossy black, with a violet-blue gloss; 

 bill black ; legs black, with a brownish tinge ; iris dark brown. Total length about 23 inches, culmen 

 2-9, wing 15-5, tail 8-6, tarsus 29, middle toe 2'2. 



Female. Similar to the male. 



This well-marked species of Raven inbabits Palestine and Nortb-east Africa, ranging eastward as 

 far as Baluchistan. 



Canon Tristram states (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 445) that it is the common Raven of Jerusalem and 

 the Jordan valley, but not on the coast, and breeds solitarily in the cliffs ; and he further writes 

 (Ibis, 1866, p. 70) as follows: — "On revisiting Jerusalem in March and April we found that the 

 greater part of the large Ravens had left, though many of C. umbrinus remained, but by no 

 means so sociable as in winter. Numbers of them paid a visit every morning to the Jewish 

 slaughter-houses, or rather slaughter-places, outside the Damascus gate. They were building, 

 not in communities, but in various scattered localities in the neighbourhood. We never obtained 

 a nest of C. corax; though, close to the city-walls in the valley of Hinnom, in a ledge easily 

 accessible, Mr. Egerton-Warburton took a nest with five eggs of C. umbrinus. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Dead Sea the common Raven was never absent ; but C. umbrinus was also 

 abundant, scattered in pairs or in small companies on every part of the shores. In the Wady 

 Kelt, near Jericho, we found several nests, containing generally five or six eggs, situated on the 

 most inaccessible ledges. We never found it, like the Hooded Crow, breeding in trees, while 



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