24 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Man, and abundantly in the Scottish Islands ; it has frequently 

 nested on our eastern coasts and occasionally inland. In 

 autumn large numbers of migratory birds arrive on the east 

 coast, many spreading over the eastern shires or proceeding 

 inland to the midlands, where it is a well-known winter visitor. 

 In the west of England and in Wales it is very rare. Although 

 in the north-east and in the Solway area Greys and Carrions 

 interbreed, the Irish Sea forms a barrier to their range in the 

 west. In Ireland and Man there are no Carrions ; in the 

 Lleyn Peninsula and Anglesey no Hoodies ; yet the two species 

 nest on the respective coast cliffs practically within sight of one 

 another. The Grey Crow is, as a rule, a day migrant ; in 

 autumn it reaches our shores in small parties, following one 

 another all day long, sometimes dropping from a height, some- 

 times travelling close to the waves. Abroad it breeds in 

 northern and eastern Europe, and closely allied forms inhabit 

 southern Europe and western Asia. 



The Hoodie, with its contrasted greys and blacks, cannot be 

 confused with either the Carrion or Rook. Seebohm, who had 

 a wide experience, declares that the call notes of the two are 

 indistinguishable, but Macgillivray, writing of this species, says 

 "its voice is not so loud or clear as that of the Carrion." My 

 own experience supports the latter view. I was with a friend 

 in a Cheshire park, where the bird is a rare vagrant, when a 

 " crow " spoke ; my friend thought it was a deep-voiced Rook ; 

 I said a high-toned Carrion ; we were both wrong, it was a 

 Hoodie. To my ears the note is pitched a little higher, but 

 probably the tone varies. The flight is slow and heavy and 

 usually straight. 



The diet is similar to that of the Carrion, and its reputation 

 as an egg-thief and destroyer of game is blacker than that of 

 its black relative ; it is feared and hated on the sheep-runs. 

 Along the shore it is a constant scavenger ; it takes birds from 

 the nets of the wildfowlers and hunts for and destroys those 



