HOODED CROW, 719 



hospitably, or as some would say patriotically attacked, as 

 would be the case in similar circumstances in rookeries. 



" A favourite food of the Hooded Crow is the Periwinkle ; 

 but the shell is hard, and in order to get at the inhabitant, the 

 Crow may often be seen near the sea-shore, flying up in the 

 air from twenty to thirty yards, and letting it drop. The ob- 

 ject seems to be here not so much to break the shell, for this 

 is seldom done, as to kill the limax by concussion, and this 

 is generally effected by repeated falls, whether these take 

 place on the sward or beach. The Cornix is not it seems a 

 bad pathologist : he knows the difference between fracture 

 and concussion, and avails himself of this knowledge. 



" Enormous multitudes of this species inhabit in winter the 

 cities on the shores of the Baltic, as Dantzic, &c., as I have wit- 

 nessed, roosting on the house-tops, and literally covering them. 

 They are then almost domestic and little molested, performing 

 the duty of expert and gratuitous scavengers. In summer 

 they disappear, probably returning to the mountains of Sweden 

 and Lapland, for incubation ; for this species, like the Raven, 

 is impatient of heat, and besides, these wilds afford them abun- 

 dance of food in larvae and wild berries." 



Mr Low's account of the matter is this : — " They meet in the 

 spring in vast flocks, as if to consult the important aftairs of sum- 

 mer, and, after flying about in this manner for eight days or so, 

 separate into pairs, and betake themselves to the mountains." 

 I would suggest that, if one or two individuals are often found 

 dead at these convocations, and if these individuals are the 

 " talkative and locomotive barristers," they have been affected 

 with some disease, the indications of which have induced a num- 

 ber of their fellows to gather around and persecute them. 

 Thus, a sparrow, with a piece of red cloth glued to its head, 

 or a straw or string fastened to its tail, will be presently at- 

 tacked by a multitude of sparrows, and a wounded deer is pur- 

 sued by the rest of the herd. Some more precise observations 

 are wanted. 



The following observations are from INIr Durham AVeir : — • 

 " Hooded Crows are seldom seen in my neighbourhood. Dur- 

 ing the long period of ten years, I have known only five of 



