298 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the nest or the female may leave the nest to meet her mate and stretch 

 her wings a little. Quite exceptionally, it would seem, the male may 

 take a turn on the nest ; a change-over at the nest has been observed in 

 the British Isles by J. Walpole-Bond, quoted by Jourdain (1938). 

 Incubation normally begins with the first egg. The nestlings are fed 

 by both parents, but chiefly by the hen and are fledged in four to 

 five weeks. 



Plumages. — A full account of plumages and molts is given by H. F. 

 Witherby in the Handbook of British Birds (1938). 



Food. — The hooded crow is a rapacious and destructive rascal, hated 

 by farmer and gamekeeper alike. Hardly any kind of animal food comes 

 amiss to it, and it is an inveterate egg stealer. Carrion and refuse of 

 all sorts are greedily devoured. It will forage diligently on rubbish tips 

 and among tidal refuse on the shore or feast more sumptuously on a 

 carcass when it can find one. Wounded or sickly animals and birds fall 

 victims to it, and occasionally some healthy bird may be pounced on and 

 laid low by a vicious blow from the bill, or even pursued and captured 

 in fair chase. The young of ducks and other birds form a comparatively 

 easy prey, and it will range the moors systematically in search of nests 

 with eggs. Occasionally small mammals such as mice and voles, and 

 even young rabbits and hares, are captured. Shepherds accuse it of 

 attacking lambing ewes and new-born lambs, and even larger lambs or 

 other animals that it can take at a disadvantage may succumb to its 

 attacks. A contributor to the journal British Birds some years ago 

 described how two hoodies set upon a lamb some weeks old, which 

 had got into difficulties in a marsh, and quickly killed it (Simpson, 

 1926). When the observer rushed up from a distance of about 400 

 yards both eyes of the unfortunate animal had been pecked out and it 

 was dying, apparently from injuries inflicted on the brain through the 

 eye sockets. Such tragedies are probably not rare. Frogs are also 

 sometimes killed and even small fish are recorded, so that no class of 

 vertebrates is immune from its attentions. Among invertebrates, 

 MoUusca, including Cardium, Mytilus, Tellina, Patella, Buccinum, Lit- 

 torina, and Purpura, among marine forms, as well as the fresh-water 

 Anodonta and land snails (Helix), insects (chiefly Coleoptera, but also 

 moths, Trichoptera, and larvae of Odonata, Plecoptera, and Diptera), 

 spiders, sea-urchins, small Crustacea (sandhoppers and crabs), and 

 earthworms have been recorded, and some vegetable matter, such as 

 grain, potatoes, and turnips, is also taken. A number of the above 

 details are quoted from Jourdain's summary of published data in the 

 Handbook of British Birds (1938). 



A special habit of the hooded and carrion crows, well known to 



