252 TJie Scottish Naturalist. 



75. CoRVUS CORONE, Linn. (Carrion-Crow.) 



76. CoRVUS coRNix, Linn. (Hooded-Crovv.) 



After the very elaborate and carefully-worked-out argument 

 for the Carrion and the Hooded Crow being of one and the 

 same species, by Professor Newton, in his new edition of Yarrell, 

 I feel scarcely justified in placing them under separate heads as 

 distinct species, but, for convenience' sake, do so in the pres- 

 ent instance. In olden days, the Huddies — as both the Car- 

 rion and Hooded Crow are indiscriminately denominated in this 

 part of the country, the name more especially, however, per- 

 taining to the former, as being the more common of the two, in 

 distinction to the Rook, which is invariably known, in these 

 parts, as the Civiv — were more numerous than they are at 

 present, and I have distinct recollection of frequently getting 

 them, as it were, in an intermediate state; and in those days 

 we always considered the ones wuh the greyish back to indi- 

 cate age, and, though of this greyish colour, to be perfectly 

 distinct from what I may call the real Hooded- Crow, which was 

 a much scarcer bird, and generally only an autumn visitor, con- 

 fining itself to the open moors and tidal banks of the river. The 

 Carrion-Crow is, of the two, by far the more generally spread 

 throughout the district, and the one, I believe, that more regu- 

 larly breeds with us. The pure hooded variety I still occasion- 

 ally see in the autumn months, on the mud-banks on the lower 

 parts of the Tay ; and I have a fine specimen, in full plumage, 

 that was trapped at Dunkeld on the 17th December 1872. 



77. CoRVUs FRUGiLEGUS, Linn. (Rook.) 



Abundant throughout the whole district, which contains many 

 large and populous rookeries, many of them in some parts not 

 being much above a mile or two distant from each other. 

 Though farmers may complain of a few potatoes destroyed, or 

 of some young wheat grubbed up, still the enormous amount of 

 good that is effected by these birds, in the wholesale destruction 

 of grubs, wireworm, and other pests highly injurious to the crops, 

 can hardly be estimated. The wonderful instinct by which the 

 Rook will detect even a particular part of a field infected by wire- 

 worm, and cluster round the spot in hundreds till every one is 

 eradicated, is something quite extraordinary, and well compen- 

 sates the farmer for the slight mischief he may do. 



