. Birds. Birds. 24 COKYID-E. being a much browner bird in general coloration, more especially so on the neck and sboidders. The neck-hackles are even shorter than in laurencei and it is rather smaller also than either of the previous forms. Measurements. Wing about 400 mm. and ranging between 380 and 420 mm. The bill in the Indian form is also more slender than it is in either the Tibet or Punjab Raven. Distribution. Sind, Baluchistan, S. Persia, Palestine and N. Africa to Fig. 3.—A throat-hackle of C. c. rufieoUis. Nidification. The Brown-necked Eaven builds in cliffs or river ban


. Birds. Birds. 24 COKYID-E. being a much browner bird in general coloration, more especially so on the neck and sboidders. The neck-hackles are even shorter than in laurencei and it is rather smaller also than either of the previous forms. Measurements. Wing about 400 mm. and ranging between 380 and 420 mm. The bill in the Indian form is also more slender than it is in either the Tibet or Punjab Raven. Distribution. Sind, Baluchistan, S. Persia, Palestine and N. Africa to Fig. 3.—A throat-hackle of C. c. rufieoUis. Nidification. The Brown-necked Eaven builds in cliffs or river banks throughout its whole area. In Balucliistan it apparently occasionally breeds in the rocky sides of the steeper and more brolveu gorges and cliffs. In South Palestine it breeds in great numbers in the river banks or in the many precipitous ravines in that country and the little that is on record concerning its breeding elsewhere agrees with tliis. It usuall}^ lays four eggs, often three only and sometimes five. Col. li. Meinertzliagen took a fine series of the eggs near Jerusalem. They are very small and can hardly be distinguished from those of a Carrion- Crow but they are rather poorly marked on the whole, less brown than those of the Tibet Eaven but much less richly coloured than those of the Punjab Eaven. They measure about 45*0 x 31*5 mm. The breeding season in Palestine seems to commence in early March, but in Baluchistan thej lay in December and January. Habits. This is essentially a bird of the desert or of rocky barren coasts and hills and wherever such are intersected by cul- tivated or better forested areas the Punjab Eaven or some other form takes its place. It is a more companionable bird than either of its Indian relations and where it is most numerous several pairs may be seen consorting together. Meinertzhagen, who has recently examined a mass of material, is unable to detect any characters by which umbrinKs of India to Palestine can be separated from ru^coU


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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1922