THE GREY CROW 93 



Disputes have for long been chronicled as to whether 

 the Grey Crow and the Carrion Crow are distinct species. 

 They interbreed it is true, but their range is not the same, 

 and there is, I think, no doubt that they are quite separate 

 species. Vast hordes of Scandinavian Hoodies cross the 

 North Sea on the easterly winds which presage the coming 

 of winter, and spread over the eastern coasts of England, 

 but they are merely winter visitors, and depart again 

 with the spring. The Carrion Crow, on the other 

 hand, is found nesting throughout England where suitable 

 localities occur ; even on the outskirts of London it may 

 be seen nesting in isolated trees. It is not many years 

 ago since a Hoodie mated with a Carrion Crow, and the 

 pair constructed their nest on the summit of a fir — Ahies 

 nohilis — on our ground. The hen was of the Grey species ; 

 she had seemingly come from a part of the world where 

 little consideration had been shown her, for she was ex- 

 tremely wary, and left the nest every time the front door 

 was opened. It was probably the result of this nervous- 

 ness, and of the consequent prolonged absences from her 

 nest, that none of the eggs hatched out, though when two 

 species intermate the eggs are not always fertile. 



The nest of the Grey Crow is usually — at all events in 

 the eastern and central districts of Scotland — placed in a 

 tree, a birch or Scots pine being the site generally chosen. 

 It is thus curious that the famous Scottish ornithologist 

 MacGillivray, writing early in the nineteenth century, 

 should never have heard of them nesting in such a posi- 

 tion. Either the Hoodie must have changed his habits 

 greatly during the last hundred years, or MacGillivray 

 can scarcely have been acquainted with the extensive 

 forests of Ballochbuie and Mar. At times the nesting spot 

 is a ledge of rock, and on the west coast of Scotland this 

 is indeed the usual situation. It is a point of interest 

 that I have never seen the nest in such a position inland, 



