Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia. 32& 



hybrids of every stage ; mulattoes, quadroons, octoroons, and 

 so on ad infinitum. The line of demarcation between the 

 two species may be roughly taken at the meridian of Calcutta, 

 extending north of Yen-e-saisk' along the valley of the Yen- 

 e-say', and south of that town along the watershed of the 

 Obb and the Yen-e-say'. That this state of things is not of 

 recent origin is proved by the fact that it is recorded by 

 Middendorff, who remarked the presence of hybrid Crows at 

 Yen-e-saisk' as long ago as 18 14. Hybrids between C. corone 

 and C. comix occur occasionally in Scotland, on the Elbe, in 

 Turkestan, and probably wherever both species occur. The 

 fact that these hybrids present a series of every intermediate 

 form between the two species \?, prima facie evidence of their 

 fertility. I succeeded, however, in ^e.ii\n.^ positive evidence of 

 this fact. On the 1 1th May, whilst the ground was still covered 

 with six feet of snow, I found a pair of hybrid Crows in pos- 

 session of a nest near the top of a pine tree. The nest con- 

 tained one e^g. On the 21st I climbed up to the nest again, 

 and found it to contain five eggs. Two of these I took. On 

 the 31st one egg was hatched, and the other two were chipped 

 ready for hatching. On the 26th June I again climbed up 

 to the nest, and found that one of the young birds had either 

 died or flown. I took the other two and shot the female. 

 She proved to be at least three parts Carrion-Crow. The 

 feathers on the sides of the neck, and on the lower part of 

 the breast and belly, are grey, with dark centres. I was 

 unable to shoot the male ; but I had on various occasions 

 examined him through my binocular. He had more Hoodie 

 blood in him than the female, having a very grey ring round 

 the neck, and showing a good deal of grey on the breast and 

 under the wings. 



My total bag of Crows at the Ku-ray'-i-ka was three 

 thoroughbred Hoodies (two males and a female) , ten thorough- 

 bred Carrions (nine males and one female); and fifteen hy- 

 brids (seven males and eight females). These figures, as far 

 as they go, lead me to the conclusion that the female Carrion- 

 Crows were all breeding, away in the woods, so that I rarely 

 got a shot at one, whereas the female hybrids were most of 



