34 The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 
tection by nets, &c. Fishing tackle and hooks, and a great 
variety of curious things, have been found in the Jackdaws’ nests 
in the ruins of the Bishop’s Palace at St. David’s. 
CARRION CROW, Corvus corone.—A common resident. In the 
‘*mountain ” parts of the county this destructive and mischievous 
bird is so numerous as to be quite a pest. He is always thieving, 
and on the watch for newly dropped lambs, young rabbits, 
wounded game, eggs of all kinds, chickens, &c. Great used to 
be our indignation at finding throughout the spring freshly sucked 
Pheasants’ eggs lying everywhere about our covers. From the 
bare district around us the Crows would gather in our plantations 
at the nesting season, vexing our ears all day long with their 
discordant croaks. We never left them alone, and it was only 
when the nest was so successfully concealed as to escape our 
search that the black marauders were able to bring out a brood. 
When the young are first out of the nest they keep together for 
some weeks, and are then to be easily approached and shot. 
One spring we took over twenty nests in our small plantations, 
and had a grand series of seventy Crows’ eggs as the result. 
One nest, cleverly hidden in an ivy-covered tree, was detected 
owing to the shells of Pheasants’ and Moorhens’ eggs, more than 
a dozen lying on the ground beneath. Most of these eggs still 
contained the whites, showing that it is the yelk only that the 
old birds carry in their beaks to their precious young. A Crow’s 
nest is a veritable fortress, constructed of such a mass of sticks 
and twigs as to be quite impenetrable to shot if it is fired up at 
from below. It is closely and thickly lined with sheep’s wool, 
and is such a perfect nest as to be gladly adopted by various 
other birds when they have the chance, such as Brown Owls, 
Kestrels, Sparrow Hawks, &c. Carrion Crows are devoted parents. 
Cunning as they are in keeping out of danger at other times, we 
have frequently had them fly boldly up to our gun when we 
have been near the nest containing their fledgelings. In dry 
weather in the middle of the summer we used to see the Crows 
searching the shallows of the Cleddy for fresh water mussels and 
