Perching Birds. 3 



Robinson, that most delightful of observers of the habits of birds, discourses on 

 the 'First Nest of a Rookery'; and he mentions several facts which seem to 

 me to have been unnoticed before, one of the most important of which is that a 

 second hen bird, having no nest and eggs of her own, was allowed to take part 

 in the incubation of the eggs of a lawful mother. 



I— The Rook. 2--The Raven. 3— The Jackdaw. 

 4— The Hooded Crow. 5— The Carrion Crow. 6— The Chocgh. 



The Raven is the largest of the European Crows, and is found in 

 ■IHE RAVEN. North America as well as in the northern parts of the Old World. The 

 species has been so persecuted on account ol the supposed depreda- 

 tions it commits, that it has deserted many of its old breeding-haunts, and now nests 

 but seldom in inland counties, though its eyrie is still to be found on several of our 

 rocky coasts. It breeds quite early in the year, and eggs are to be found in the 

 beginning of March or at the end of February. They are large editions of the eggs 

 of the Rook and Carrion Crow, and are sometimes so small that they can scarcely be 

 distinguished from those of the latter bird. From its size the Raven is able to make 



I* 



