166 BRITISH BIBD8 



Carrion Crow. 

 Corvus corone. 



Black with green and violet reflections ; iris dark hazel ; lower 

 part of the beak covered with bristly feathers. Length, nineteen 

 inches. 



The common, black, or carrion crow so closely resembles the 

 rook in form, size, and colomring as to be indistinguishable from it 

 when seen at a distance. Viewed nearer it is seen to have the base 

 of the beak clothed with feathers, instead of naked and grey, as is the 

 case in the more common bird. The young rook may, however, be 

 mistaken for a crow even when very near, as its face is feathered 

 hke the crow's. In voice the two birds differ, that of the crow 

 being louder and very much harsher — more like the raven's croak 

 than the familiar hoarse, but not disagreeable, caw of the rook. In 

 summer he may be identified by his solitary habits. He has a very 

 much worse reputation than the species he so nearly resembles : 

 both game-preserver and farmer regard him as a pest, and he is 

 said to be the most persecuted bird in this country. But somehow, 

 in spite of all that is done to extirpate him utterly, he manages to 

 keep a pretty strong hold on life, although he is not common. He 

 inhabits all of the British Islands, chiefly England and Wales; 

 in the central and northern parts of Scotland, and in Ireland, he 

 is rarely met with, his place in those countries being taken by 

 the hooded crow. When not engaged in breeding the crow is to 

 some extent gregarious, and is also social, associating both in the 

 fields and at roostuig-time with rooks and jackdaws. Ajid it is 

 probable that this habit has been of great advantage to him, and 

 may even have saved the species from extermination, for while 

 among the rooks he easily passes for a rook. That he is exception- 

 ally sagacious, and very careful to keep out of reach of his 

 deadly human enemies, goes without saying ; he is a member of 

 a family ranking high in inteUigence ; and being so large and con- 

 spicuous a bird, his life is one of incessant danger. In selecting 

 a site for his nest his intelligence is sometimes at fault. Not 

 only is the nest a large structure, but, with a strange fatuity, the 

 bird will at times build in a conspicuous place near a house. On 

 the coast he is, like the raven and jackdaw, a nester in cliffs ; inland 



