8 CROW. 



3— WHITE-NECKED RAVEN. 



Corvus albicollis, Ind. Orn. i. 151. Daud. ii. 227. 



— — Vulturinus, Shaw's Zool. vii. 343. 



— — torquatus, Spalowsk. Vog. iii. t. 10. 



Corbiveau, Let-ail. Ois. ii. pi. 50. 



South-Sea Raven, Gen. Syn. Sup. 75. Id. Sup. ii. 107. Bruce' s Trav. A pp. p. 152. 



LENGTH eighteen or nineteen inches ; size smaller than the 

 common species. Bill ridged, and arched on the top, as in the Ani, 

 but not sharp-edged ; general colour of the plumage glossy black, 

 except a large patch of white at the nape, and an irregular, broken 

 stripe of the same on each side, surrounding the neck before, as a 

 crescent ; the tail is cuneiform, and the wings, when closed, reach 

 beyond it ; the feathers of the head and neck seem elongated, and 

 dishevelled. 



The female is smaller than the male, with less white on the neck ; 

 the plumage less glossy, and inclined to brown. — M. Levaillant adds, 

 that the feathers of the throat are forked, the webs extending beyond 

 the shafts, and colour less black than the others. He found it every 

 where in his African travels, but particularly among the great Nama- 

 quas, and in Swarteland, but less common than at the Cape itself, 

 and did not think it to be a bird of passage. 



This is a bold species, attacking young lambs and antelopes : it 

 feeds also on Carrion, and may be esteemed a link between the Crow 

 and Vulture Genus. 



I observed a figure of one among the late Mr. Bruce 's drawings, 

 which differed merely in having the shoulders of the wings brownish, 

 the tip of the bill white, and the back of the neck brownish, with a 

 large triangular patch of white on the nape,* having no other mark 

 of white, for the general colour of the plumage was black. 



* Mr. Bruce calls this " a figure like a cup or chalice of white feathers on the occiput, 

 or hind part of the head." 



