194 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



with study and attention in a most exemplary 

 manner. He slept in a stable — generally on horse- 

 back—and so terrified a Newfoundland dog by his 

 preternatural sagacity, that he has been known, by 

 mere superiority of genius, to walk off with the 

 dog's dinner unmolested from before his face." 



Like most malefactors, however, he came to a 

 bad end, notwithstanding his intelligence. His 

 knowledge of chemistry did not extend to the pro- 

 perties of white lead, and he died after extracting a 

 pound or so from a spot where the workmen had 

 carefully hidden it. 



The Chough, distinguished by his red feet and 

 red curved bill, is a true rock-dweller, and never 

 appears to alight upon trees at all, but the remain- 

 ing seven, including the rare Nutcracker, are all, in 

 a greater or less degree, birds of the woodlands. 



The first of these, the Carrion Crow, is at once 

 set apart from the more commonly known Rook 

 by the fact that the base of the bill is covered 

 with fine hair-like feathers, and lacks altogether 

 the curious wattled appearance which marks the 

 adult Rook. 



These Carrion Crows offer a problem to those 

 engaged in the classification of birds which is by 

 no means easy of solution. The Hooded or Grey 

 Crow at first sight appears obviously to be of a 

 distinct species. In the first place, its plumage is 

 parti-coloured — grey and black — and differs essen- 

 tially from the total blackness of the true Black or 

 Carrion Crow. Again, the Grey Crow visits Eng- 

 land in winter onlv, Avhereas the Black, when not 



