NATURAL HISTORY. 



277 



CORVUS. 



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Moacdiila (Lat. a Jackdaw}, the Jackdaw. 



tliose of the rook, smaller and more sparingly spotted. The 

 length is fourteen inches. 



The CROW, or CARRION Crow, as it is erroneously called, 

 seldom feeds on carrion, for poor indeed would be his meals 

 were he dependent on dead sheep or horses for a livelihood. 

 Possibly the name was given as a distinction between it and 

 the rook. Waterton states that the flesh of the Carrion Crow 

 is just as good as that of the rook, and relates how he once 

 served up a pie of these birds to some friends, who thought 

 them pigeons. It will also eat cherries and walnuts like the 

 rook, and when the supply of insects has failed, it will then turn 

 its attention to the duck-pond and farm-yard, and carry off a 

 young duckling or chicken. 



" Sometimes he approaches the farm-house by stealth, in the 

 search of young chickens, which he is in the habit of snatching 

 off, when he can elude the vigilance of the mother hen, who 

 often proves too formidable for him. A few days ago, a crow 

 was observed eagerly attempting to seize some young chickens 

 in an orchard, near the room where I write, but these cluster- 



