So I decided to create a topic about the "Goblin Wolfman" of Aht'Urhgan, Ravin Raven. I'm going to go into detail with alot of misc. facts that don't have much to do with the actual NM, but can stimulate creative thinking.
History
The July 2006 patch added Notorious Monsters to Aht'Urhgan. 90% of all of the popular NMs that are in Aht'Urhgan were added in this patch (Jaded Jody, Big Bomb, Emergent Elm, Hydra, Zikko, all of the Besieged NMs, BloodyBones, ect. ect.). All of the newly added items were found on their corresponding NMs; All but one: Birdman Cape. At this time, .dat miners also discovered Ravin Raven in the Caedarva Mire monster/npc file right at the bottom of the list of all the new NMs. The name Ravin Raven combined with the name of the missing item, Birdman Cape seemed like a perfect fit.
Marsh Murre: Caedarva is home to many many bird monsters, called Marsh Murre. This seemed to match up in more ways than one. If one thing can be said about monster names in FFXI, it's that SE loves their play on words. They like silly names that make sense and are creative and fun: (Leaping Lizzy, Zizzy Zillah, Jaggedy-Eared Jack). A similarity with Marsh Murre and Ravin Raven is that they both have 5 letters, and they both begin with the same letter on both words. M&M, R&R. Another similarity is that that are other birds in zones that follow the same name pattern (Carrion Crow). There are also other "Ravens" in the game such as Arboricole Raven and Nightmare Raven. Something unsimiliar is that Ravin Raven does not match up with other bird NM names (Helldiver, Nihniknoovi, Nunyenunc).
Outside of the name game, you find that there are tons and tons of birds in Caedarva Mire that could be potential placeholders. West of Nashmau, in the area leading to the graveyard, there are 4-5 birds which are commonly exp'd upon, which rules out any chance of them being lottery pop there. The graveyard itself is also used commonly as an exp spot, which rules out the lottery there. East of Nashmau, all around the big pond, there are tons of Marsh Murre, which are used by BST and by exp parties often aswell. I've personally killed or watched every bird in this area be killed numerous times and no pop. There are 2 remaining birds in the area, near where Peallaidh pops. Both are commonly used by BST, and I've killed them several times. This rules out all the Birds in Caedarva mire being lottery pop for Ravin Raven.
Merrow No.5: Shortly after the patch, many people found on Japanese forums that Birdman cape drops from Merrow No.5 in Arrapago Reef. Many people have killed this NM several times and it has never dropped the cape. The cape has never appeared on the auctionhouse on any server (according to ffxiah), and this rumor probably originated due to Merrow No.5 being a BRD, and the cape having +9 CHR.
Qutrub: At the same time people were reporting Merrow No.5, a reliable japanese website listed Ravin Raven as being a Qutrub. Many people (mostly japanese) have exp'd on the Lamia Idolaters out in Dvucca Isle. While there are tons of Qutrub there and with their quick repops it's hard for a PT to kill them all, but I know most of them have been killed quite a few times.
Bhoot: A few days later, that same JP website changed Ravin Raven's monster family from Qutrub > Ghost. A few people said it pops from the Guard Bhoot at G-10. Myself and a few friends went to that camp to kill placeholder (20:00 - 4:00 pop). You can kill it about 3 times before it turns to morning. After it not popping after a few hours, we tried one of the other Bhoots, but no pop. There is 1 more Bhoot in the zone which I've never tried.
Treants & Rams: I've taken people to exp off of the treants and rams in an uncommon spot in Caedarva. You have to exit through a place in Arrapago to get there. After a few hours of killing every Ram/Treant there, no pop.
Fomors: All the Fomors in the Caedarva are commonly exp'd on. The ones in the small section north of the Ashu Talif zone... I have killed these for an hour before (5min respawn, so I got a good amount of kills in), and no pop.
Lamia & Skeletons: There are several Lamia and Skeletons placed throughout the zone. Specifically on Dvucca. While I don't think many people have killed the skeletons near the Qutrub, I've taken a party to kill the skeletons in the section north of the Ashu Talif. To get there, you have to go through Arrapago and past near where Medusa spawns, to exit back out. Theres several Qutrub, Lamia, and Skeletons there. I've killed a few Qutrub and Lamia before, and I spent a good couple of hours killing the Skeletons.... no pop.
???: All of the ??? in the zone are accounted for and used for quests/missions.
Anyways, I know this is all sort-of random and crazy... and most people probably don't care about this NM, but it bugs me that this hasn't been discovered yet. There are several possibilities that I've yet to go into, like it being a Leech, Puktrap, Slime, Chigoe(>.>). I'm still inclined to be that somehow, its a Bird. The thought of it being like Rose Garden has crossed my mind, but I think those NMs were very poorly designed(cool on paper, idiotic in-game). I would've hoped SE learned that making an NM that could potentially never pop is a bad idea, but you never know. Also, all the "don't touch the PH"-NMs were all in 1 patch, and they never added anything like that before/after(hopefully). Another thing against this theory... as popular as it is to exp off of the birds in Caedarva, I think that over the course of the last 15 months, at least one of the servers would've by chance not touched any of the birds there for a random time of 9-12 hours. The only spot in Caedarva that I would think has never gotten a break, would be the Imp/fly/jnun camp right outside the staging point.
In conclusion, I'd like to see if anyone else has tried anything for this NM... and maybe people can come up with their own ideas.