HOODED CROW — EOOK. 105 



a tree in the grounds of the University Observatory at Oxford 

 (W. W. Fowler). 



THE HOODED CROW. 



CortHS comix. 

 The Hooded, Grey^ or Royston Crow, is an uncommon 

 winter visitor, arriving- about the middle of October. A few 

 examples only are noticed in any season, and in some none at 

 all. In the cold spring of 1886 they remained unusually late, 

 one being seen by Mr. A. H. Macpherson feeding with Rooks 

 in Christ Church Meadow on the 13th March; another was 

 shot in the neighbourhood of Oxford two days later, and on 

 the 30th a third was shot near Banbury. Early in the follow- 

 ing September^ a Grey Crow was shot at Oxford, and it 

 is possible that this species, which has been known to breed 

 no further from us than Warwickshire, may have nested 

 somewhere in the vicinity of, if not actually in, the county 

 that year. It is known in the upper Thames district as the 

 ' Dun Crow ' (Warner, 31S.). 



THE BOOK. §\J 



Corvus fnigilegus. 



The Rook is a numerous resident, almost every parish 

 possessing its Rookery or Rookeries, the young, or ' branchers,'' 

 of which are shot in favourable springs on or about the 1 3th 

 May. In very severe weather with deep snow a partial 

 migration of our Rooks sometimes takes place, and of those 

 that remain some often die of starvation, as for instance 

 in February, 1888, when many were picked up dead. 



It is not desirable to enter here at any length upon the 

 much vexed question of whether the Rook is more injurious 

 or beneficial to the farmer. The harm they do at times is 

 sufficiently obvious to the agriculturist, but it is for a short 

 season only that they can do any damage to the crops, and all 

 the rest of the year they are performing services which they 

 alone could render. The worms and grubs brought to their 



