Mashonaland Birds. 
223 
where they often do a good deal of damage to the farmers* 
crops. Unlike the European Rooks, they do not seem to be 
gregarious in their nesting-habits, although they will roost 
together in large numbers. Their food consists largely of 
insects, but they are also frugivorous, and when hard 
pressed I have even seen them eat carrion. Their flight is 
very much more laboured and cumbrous than that of 
the Crow. At times they fly in a very curious fashion, 
holding the wings well below the horizontal and fluttering 
them sharply, after the manner of the Bishop-birds. The 
eggs, which are four in number, are very variable, the 
ground-colour being either creamy white, dull purplish, or 
deep salmon-pink, with highly variable spots and blotches of 
reddish brown; the shape is also varied, the sides being 
sometimes distinctly compressed, with the narrow end very 
blunt, or the smaller end may be very rapidly narrowed 
from about the middle to quite a sharp point. Measurements 
(in millimetres) : 42*5 X 28, 43 & 44 x 30. 
2. Corvus scapulatus. (White-bellied Crow.) 
This fine Crow is abundant throughout the country, and 
always to be found in some numbers about the towns, where 
it shares with the Vultures the dead oxen and donkeys. 
But it does not disdain meaner fare, and may be seen 
searching cattle-droppings for coprophilous beetles or per* 
forming the office of tick-pecker to the donkeys. In Natal 
I have known these Crows to kill young lambs, or even 
sickly sheep, usually commencing by pecking out the eyes. 
Although their flight is somewhat heavy, they will often 
soar to a considerable height, and are capable of performing 
really graceful evolutions. They are very fond of bullying 
the weaker Hawks, such as Kestrels and Harriers, and I 
have even seen a single one pursuing a Bateleur Eagle. 
3. Corvultur albicollis. (White-necked Raven.) 
This is considerably scarcer than the preceding species, 
I and I have rarely seen it in the immediate vicinity of 
Salisbury. It is, however, to be met with sparingly in most 
parts of the country, generally in pairs. 
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