102 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



country may therefore induce these birds to pre- 

 fer the neighbourhood of this treeless tract to 

 the wooded and highly cultivated region which 

 extends to the very shore in the more western 

 part of Sussex; and admitting tliis conjecture to 

 be correct, the partiality of the carrion crow to 

 the latter district may be accounted for in a simi- 

 lar manner. 



I should have observed that carrion crows, even 

 where they occur in the greatest numbers during 

 the winter months, as at Pagham harbour and 

 the inlets of the sea to the south of Chichester, 

 seem always, more or less, to live in pairs, and 

 never assemble in large flocks, as hooded crows 

 are well known to do in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Brighton, and even on the beach 

 between the houses and the sea. 



The food of both these birds, as well as that 

 of the raven, at this season of the year consists 

 of oysters, mussels, small crabs, marine insects, 

 worms and dead fish, which are cast up by the 

 waves. Indeed even the rook is driven by the 

 same necessity to the sea-coast during the preva- 

 lence of severe frost, and partakes of the same 

 fare. At Pagham, in the vicinity of the oyster- 

 beds, I have frequently seen the carrion crow 

 ascend to a gi-eat height in the air with one of 

 these fish in his claws, and after letting it fall on 



