Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 429 



the shell from a height in the air several times before attaining their 

 object." Mr. R„ Ball has seen one of these birds drop a cockle 

 (Cardium edule) on a stone to break it, whilst another stood cun- 

 ningly by to snatch it up, and succeeded in the theft. All this is 

 but a counterpart of what is related by Dr. Fleming in his ' Philo- 

 sophy of Zoology,' as having been observed by him in Zetland. The 

 mere act of their rising into the air with shell-fish and letting them 

 drop on rocks, I have myself repeatedly witnessed. This bird is use- 

 ful on the sea-shore by consuming any animal matter cast by the tide 

 upon the beach ; but by the gamekeeper it is looked upon as an evil- 

 doer, accused of sucking the eggs of game, and occasionally destroy- 

 ing the infant birds, and is accordingly persecuted. I remember a 

 pair of these birds being accused of sucking a dozen or more eggs in 

 a wild-duck's nest in the aquatic menagerie of a friend. At his place 

 a novel experiment was once resorted to. Four young gray crows 

 in a nest were pinioned, in expectation that their parents would con- 

 tinue feeding them so long that a certain opportunity would be af- 

 forded of shooting or trapping them. Disappointment was however 

 the result, as the old birds, on returning to the nest and perceiving 

 the mutilated state of their progeny, left them to perish. 



A gentleman of my acquaintance, who is very observant of the 

 habits of birds, once saw two gray crows in pursuit of a rabbit in an 

 open field. The chase was continued only as it ran ; when it squatted 

 they never attempted to molest it : the chase and parley together 

 were continued for some time. According to the testimony of seve- 

 ral of the intelligent wild-fowl shooters of Belfast bay, gray crows 

 are not uncommonly seen in pursuit of the smaller shore-birds 

 (Grallatores); and two of my informants were witness to one of these 

 crows pursuing a merlin {Falco JEsalon) which had captured a sand- 

 lark {fringa variabilis) until the hawk dropped it, when the crow 

 picked it up from the surface of the water. A pet buzzard (Buteo 

 vulgaris) belonging to a friend, was when flying about the demesne 

 always persecuted by gray crows. The gentleman before alluded 

 to shot one of these birds when it had young, and the same evening 

 saw about ten gray crows come to feed the nestlings, which how- 

 ever died in the course of the night, which was very cold and wet. 

 When engaged in the construction of their nest, these birds are 

 more heedless of enemies than at other times, and then occasionally 

 fall victims to the gun ; but when one has been killed, the survivor 

 is soon provided with a mate. At this early stage of the breeding- 

 season (as remarked at "the Falls" near Belfast) neither these 

 birds nor magpies were observed to be mated again for three or four 

 days, when a new nest was commenced, not at the same place, but 

 contiguous to the former one. The twice-married crows and mag- 

 pies here, proved always too wary to be shot. 



Mr. Yarrell observes, that " more than two are seldom seen asso- 

 ciated together, except when food is to be obtained." But at all 

 seasons of the year, I have seen them associating together in little 

 troops up to the number of fifteen, on the shore of Belfast bay, when 

 there was no apparent cause for their meeting ; and when there has 



