124 British Birds ^ 



exhausted as to suffer itself to be picked up by a 

 spectator. I knew another instance, also many years 

 ago, in which the Crow attacked a young Rabbit. 

 The old doe came to the assistance of her young one, 

 and the battle was well contested, but the Crow was 

 the victor, and carried off the spoil. Paired once, 

 these birds, as in the case of the Raven, are paired for 

 good. The nest is placed in a main fork of a large 

 tree, and is made of sticks and twigs, with abundant 

 cushioning of wool and hair. It is believed not to 

 build a new nest every year. It lays four or five 

 eggs, varying much in the depth of the tint of the 

 greenish ground-colour, and generally well mottled 

 and blotched and spotted with greenish ash colour 

 and bright brown. The parents seem to expel their 

 young from the immediate precincts of their own 

 abode very soon after they are able to provide for 

 themselves ; as is the case with the Raven also. — Fig. 

 i^, plate V, 



GREY (:My^—{Corvus comix). 



Royston Crow, Dun Crow, Norway Crow, Kentish 

 Crow, Hooded Crow, Grey-backed Crow, Bunting 

 Crow, Scare-crow, Hoodie. — Even a fiercer and more 

 mischievous bird than the Carrion Crow. It has been 

 very seldom known to breed in England,^ though 

 coming in great abundance from its more northern 

 haunts before the access of winter. In north and 



1 Both of these statements must be taken with the qualification 

 that it is by no means an ascertained fact that the Carrion Crow and 

 the Grey Crow form two distinct species. It is held by many orni- 

 tliologists that they do not. Certainly they interbreed with one 

 another. 



