HOODED CROW. 261 



two instances on record of its having remained to nest 

 in this neighbourhood, but not of late years. Mr. 

 Hunt, of Norwich, in a note to his "British Orni- 

 thology," says, "We are informed that a pair of these 

 birds built a nest and reared their young during the 

 season of 1816, in the neighbourhood of King's Lynn ;" 

 and Mr. W. R. Fisher has noticed, in the " Zoologist" 

 (p. 315), having observed three of these crows in some 

 marshes near Yarmouth, in July, 1843, one of which 

 from its small size and apparently imperfect plumage, 

 he believed to have been a young bird, and, if so, in all 

 probability bred in that district. I learn also from the 

 Eev. E. W. Dowell, of Dunton, a most accurate observer, 

 that he saw three grey crows at Blakeney, with some 

 rooks on the 18th of May, 1857, and, in 1853^ several 

 of these birds kept about Blakeney throughout the 

 summer. He also witnessed on one occasion, in the 

 autumn of 1847, when shooting on the Blakeney sand- 

 meals, " as many as two or three hundred hooded crows, 

 all flying from east to west, in small parties of from two 

 to ten, flying high till out of sight." In the spring of 

 1853, being at Cromer for some weeks, I was greatly 

 amused, watching the habits of these birds by the sea- 

 side, and with the help of a glass could observe their 

 actions very accurately from day to day. I was parti- 

 cularly struck with the instinct they displayed with 



ordinary variety and number. No sooner does a wild duck, 

 pheasant, or any bird leave its nest, than the hooded crow is on 

 the look-out, and I have no doubt that a single pair often destroys 

 many hundred eggs in the course of a season. All birds seem 

 aware of this, and peewits, gulls, redshanks, &c., attack most 

 fiu'iously any crow which they see hunting near their nests. The 

 " hoody" is also very fond of young wild ducks, and destroys 

 great numbers. In the mountains it is bold enough to make prize 

 of the eggs of the eagle, peregrine falcon, or osprey, if the parent 

 birds hapjien to be driven off their nests. [" Nat. Hist, and Sport 

 in Moray," p. 59.] 



