CARRION CROW. 103 



THE CARRION" CROW. 



Corpus coi'one. 



The Carrion Crow is a resident for the most part, but leaves 

 us almost entirely in severe weather. Its numbers depend 

 locally upon the extent to which game preserving- is carried on. 

 In the north of the county, where the Crow has it all its own 

 way, it is particularly abundant, and here loses much of the 

 solitary habit usually attributed to it, being seen commonly, 

 except in the breeding season, in small flocks. On i8th 

 October, 1883, I counted no less than thirty-two feeding in a 

 stubble field at Great Bourton, and on the afternoon of the 

 28th December, 1884, my brother and I saw an assemblage of 

 Crows, which we calculated must have numbered 200 at 

 the least, collected in some trees near a well-known roosting 

 haunt. These I am inclined to consider consisted chiefly of 

 passing migrants on their way south, as there were but few 

 about the roost the evening before. 



This particular roosting-place, a spinney of tall oak trees in 

 this parish, has to my knowledge been resorted to regularly 

 for the last ten years. About dusk the Crows collect in the 

 outlying trees, arriving with much loud croaking, taking 

 short flights, and often sailing over the spinney without 

 alighting. As the darkness increases a few fly in and settle 

 in the tree tops, to be followed shortly by the rest, and, noisy 

 as they are outside, they always fly in quite silently ; often as 

 I have stood under the trees as they came in, I have never 

 heard them utter a sound. 



The Crow pairs rather early in spring, and on the wild 

 windy days in March a couple of pairs may be seen disputing 

 for the possession of some Kttle grove or row of trees ; wheel- 

 ing round with loud and angry croaks, twisting in and 

 out of the bare branches, and swooping down savagely as one 

 or other settles for a moment. The observer can almost fancy 

 the days of the Raven back again. Although pairing early 



