68 Rev. H.B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 
justify me, as I believe, in separating the Palestine bird by cer¬ 
tain specific characters, which I accordingly did (P. Z. S. 1864, 
p. 444), under the name of Corvus agricola. These differences 
are, that the feathers of the throat are more lanceolate than 
in our bird, and especially that the reflexions of the plumage, 
particularly on the head, which are blue-black in the British 
bird, and purple in the Chinese, are in this of a greenish-purple 
black. 
We never met with the Rook on the east side of Jordan, though 
I am not prepared to say it does not exist there. It will be in¬ 
teresting to ascertain whether the Rook mentioned in Blythes 
catalogue from Cashmere, and stated by Jerdon also to be found 
in winter in the Punjaub and Affghanistan, belongs to this, to the 
European, or to the Chinese species. Palestine seems to be the 
extreme southern limit of the range of the Rook. It has not 
been found in Egypt, and Strickland found no trace of it in Asia 
Minor, though it is reported from the Caucasus. It is not 
mentioned by Hasselquist, nor by Russell in his ( Natural History 
of Aleppo/ 
The Common Raven (Corvus corax) is everywhere present in 
Palestine, and there, as I have observed also in North Africa, he 
is, except in the breeding-season, by no means the lonely solitary 
being which he is held to be in most parts of Europe, but is as 
sociable and gregarious as the Rook or Jackdaw. He is, how¬ 
ever, decidedly averse to a near acquaintance with the gun, and, 
unless under very favourable circumstances, is only amenable 
to a green cartridge. Though we daily saw the species, we never 
obtained a specimen till we were under the walls of Jerusalem. 
Here, however, it was quite outnumbered by its smaller com¬ 
panion the Brown-necked Raven ( C . umhrinus, Hedenb.). Of 
all the birds of Jerusalem, the Ravens are the most characteristic 
and conspicuous. They are present everywhere to eye and ear, 
and the odours that float around remind us of their use. The 
discordant jabber of their evening sittings round the Mosque of 
Omar is deafening. The caw of the Rook and the chatter of 
the Jackdaw unite in attempting to drown the hoarse croak of 
the old Raven ; but clear above the tumult rings out the more mu¬ 
sical call-note of hundreds of the lesser species. On the evening 
