623 
1921 .] the,Near East and Tropical East Africa. 
Corvus corax ruficollis Lesson. 
Corvus ruficollis Lesson, 1831 : no locality. 
Corvus umhrinus Sundevall, 1838 : Senaar. 
Corvus infumatus Wagner, Munch, gel. Anz. viii. 1839, 
p. 301 : Arabia Petraea, Egypt, and Dongola. 
Corvus corax hrausei Zedlitz, Orn. Monats. 1908, p. 178 : 
N.E. Africa, probably Suez, and El Tor in Sinai. 
I have not been able to examine the type of infumatus 
which is in Munich, but I am told the specimen resembles 
typical ruficollis but has a more slender bill. The type of 
ruficollis probably came from the Cape Verde Islands ( cf ’. 
Hartert, Nov. Zool. 1913, p. 37). As regards krausei , 
the race is based on four birds from Sinai which have black 
plumage with a poor gloss as opposed to the coppery plumage 
of ruficollis. They are also said to have very slender bills. 
As regards the black plumage, I believe these four birds are 
nothing more than immature ruficollis , which do not assume 
the coppery plumage till the first moult. This has already 
been pointed out by Hartert, and I can confirm it from birds 
shot in north Sinai in early autumn. But Geyr (J. f. 0. 
1918, p. 145) disagrees, and finds that birds of eight or 
ten months show a certain amount of brown on the head, 
neck, and back. 
Now, as Suez is said to be one of the localities from which 
krausei comes, I would point out that I recently saw some 
thirty Ravens at Suez, and could see through my glasses that 
every bird was typical ruficollis as regards plumage. This 
was in April. There is an adult bird from Suez in the 
British Museum which in colour differs in no way from 
the birds from Egypt, India, or other localities. 
The wing of krausei is also said to be small. Now the 
only Sinai bird with an exceptionally small wing is one 
in the Brehm Collection at Tring, labelled “Arabia Petraea,” 
an adult male. The specimen has a much worn wing, not 
exceeding 350 mm., and a culmen 65 mm. long and 25 mm. 
high. By comparing the date on which the bird was shot 
with Brehm’s Reiseskizzen, it must have been obtained near 
2 t 2 
