CROWS— BLACK AND GREY 137 



times brown feathers ; and you may know his egg from a 

 rook's, for it is larger and bkier; and you may know him 

 amongst rooks by his flight, which is quicker, and his 

 actions are less sluggish, nor does he wheel about so much 

 as a rook ; and when seen near his children, he soon leaves 

 until the strangers go away. 



But he is rare in the Broadland, as I have said, and 

 nearly a thing of the past. 



The Grey Crow. 



Not so with the " Kentishman," or grey crow, who is one 

 of the commonest winter birds of the marshland — a brave 

 freebooter, in handsome uniform, who ranges from the sea 

 to the upland, through snow-blast and sunshine, a spirit of 

 the lone marshland, one of its winter voices. 



Indeed, he is one of the most familiar birds of the district 

 — a handsome, rather sluggish bird, dressed in black and 

 grey, with a powerful black bill. 



Soon after Michaelmas, when the Broadland is a harmony 

 of blue and gold, the grey crows arrive in large flocks, and, 

 separating into small parties of fifteen or twenty, they scatter 

 over the Broadland, some of these flocks dividing into smaller 

 parties, finally dividing into pairs, or even going singly ; and 

 when nearly all the bird life of the district is starving with 

 hunger, the grey crow is busiest. All winter long, whether 

 in sun or hail, in sunshine or fog, you will of a morning see 

 the grey crow leave the low alders by the broads, where 

 they roost, near to the rooks, and go with sluggish flight to 

 their beats, for they are late risers ; nor are they so active 

 as a rook, moping as they do, on grey foggy days, like wood- 

 pigeons — an altogether different bird from the active, alert 

 black crow, who is never still save when he is dead. And 

 if you follow these birds in the morning to their hunting- 

 grounds, you will see them range along the land, you will 

 see them about the marshes, round the bottoms of stacks, on 



