RAVEN. 
allied. I prefer, however, placing it among the true Crows to assigning it to 
a companionship with the larger members of the family. Every part of Australia 
yet explored has been found to be inhabited by it; some slight difference, 
however, is observable between individuals from Port Essington, Swan River, 
Tasmania, and New South Wales, but these differences appear to me to be too 
trivial to be regarded as specific ; specimens from Western Australia are some¬ 
what less in size than those procured in the other localities mentioned, while 
Port Essmgton examples have the basal portion of the feathers on the back 
of the neck greyish-white, which is not the case with those inhabiting the south 
coast. When the birds are fully adult, the colour of the eye is white, I believe, 
in the whole of them—a circumstance which tends to strengthen the opinion 
I entertain of their being one and the same species. In Western Australia, 
for the greater part of the year, this bird is met with in pairs or singly; but 
m May and June it congregates in families of from twenty to fifty, and is then 
verj' destructive to the farmers’ seed crops, which appear to be its only induce¬ 
ment for assembling together, as it is not known to congregate at any other 
period. In New South Wales and Tasmania it is also usually seen in pairs, 
but occasionally congregated in small flocks. At Port Essington, where it is 
mostly seen in pairs, in quiet secluded places, it is not so abundant as in other 
parts of Australia. The stomach is tolerably muscular, and the food consists 
of insects, carrion of all kinds, berries, seeds, grain and other vegetable 
substances. Its croak very much resembles that of the CaiTion-Crow^, but 
differs in the last note being lengthened to a great extent.” 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin has written me from Cobbora, New South Wales, under 
name “ Corone amtralis. This well-knowm villain of a bird is too numerous at 
all times throughout the district, but is more frequently met with in the open 
country, although they often resort to the ironbark ranges to breed, usually 
choosing a very large tree in w^hich to place their nest, and if the eggs are 
destroyed, they will often lay another clutch in the same nest wdtliin a few 
days. The earliest date I have taken their eggs is July 7th and the latest 
October 14th, the latter probably being a second laying. Most of them lay 
during July and August, and the clutch is generally four or five, but it is no 
unusual thing to find six. During droughts, when sheep are in low condition, 
also in the lambing season, these birds do a great amount of damage; stock- 
owners as a rule do all they can (which is very little) to destroy them, which 
is no easy matter. When poor sheep get down, they are almost immediately 
attacked by these birds, first pecking out an eye or both, from which treatment 
I have never knowm a sheep to recover ; whether this is owing to the fact that 
the Raven, being a carrion feeder, causes blood poisoning, remains to be proved. 
Few people have a good word to say for them, and fewer still ever fail to try 
voL. xn. 
393 
