SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 175 
116, STARLING, Sturnus vulgaris, Linn, (Hasselquist 47) ; 
“ Zarzur.” 
Small flocks seen not unfrequently in the Delta and 
Middle Egypt.* 
117, BROWN-NECKED RAVEN, Corvus umbrinus, 
Hedenborg. 
A Raven was only once distinctly recognized in the 
Delta. Up the river they were generally seen in pairs, or 
gathered together in a flock—sometimes as many as forty 
together—near some carcase; and yet I have sometimes 
seen a large number of them where there was apparently 
nothing to attract them. They were not particularly hard 
to shoot, and we had soon got enough. I only once found 
a nest; it was on a solitary palm tree. The hen sat close. 
Only one of those we shot could strictly be called brown- 
necked: it was a fine old bird. Some of the others were 
entirely black, so that it was an excusable error in certain 
former observers to mistake them for our English Raven. 
The immature ones are entirely black also. I believe that 
the variation in size, which I dare say has been noticed by 
others besides myself, is sexual. One specimen had the 
nasal feathers a dull yellow. 
Yarrell, in his 1st edition (B. B. IL, 65),"accredits the 
English Raven with being found in Egypt. He says that 
* In Norfolk, Starlings pair as early as the 2nd of February. As 
spring advances the habits of these birds undergo a change. Perched 
upon an ash tree or the gable of a barn, they raise their neck hackles to 
one another, and seek rather than avoid the proximity of man. One is 
surprised at the noise which they now make, and there is no doubt that 
they imitate other birds, such as Hens, Crows, Jackdaws, Ducks, etc. 
I never listen to them without feeling convinced that this is what they 
are really doing, but it all ceases by the 1st of May. 
