2 



wool, and is built iu a tree or on a ledge of rock. The eggs (see British 

 Bird Egg Cabinet, drawer 6) are from four to five in number and 

 closely resemble those of the Rook and Hooded Crow. The food 

 consists of small mammals, birds and eggs, and all sorts of carrion 

 and refuse. Great damage is done in game preserves by the depreda- 

 tions of these crows. 



Case 102. 



HOODED OR GREY CROW {Corvus comix). 

 Local names : Royston Crow, Sea Crow. 



The Royston Crow, as this species is also called, visits England and 

 Wales from October onwards in large numbers, while in the north and 

 west of Scotland and in Ireland it is resident. Its favourite food 

 seems to consist of cockles, and when the bird finds a difficulty in 

 opening one of them, it flies up in the air and lets the mollusc fall upon 

 a rock or hard ground so as to break the shell. It also does great 

 damage to the eggs of game birds, and is considered by the gamekeeper 

 quite as destructive as the Carrion Crow. The nest is a solid structure, 

 often built in cliffs, of the usual Corvine type, composed of twigs and 

 branches, coarse roots, moss, wool, and a few feathers. There are 

 three to six eggs in a clutch, of a green or greenish blue, generally 

 clouded with brown spots and mottlings and overlaid with larger 

 mottlings of greenish-brown (see British Bird Egg Cabinet, drawer 6). 



Case 103. 



RAVEN {Corvus corax). 



A resident species, local and diminishing in numbers. A few pairs 

 are still found in the Northern Counties, but it is only in the milder 

 parts of the north and west that the Raven occurs regularly, where 

 it breeds in the cliffs of the high fells and on crag ledges of unfrequented 

 dales. 



Although exceedingly rare in Lancashire, it may be still seen on 

 some of the wilder hills in the north of the County, and there are few 

 of the hill districts without some rocky crag which takes its name from 

 the bird (Mitchell, " Birds of Lancashire," p. 83). In Cheshire, Ravens 

 were plentiful in the 15th Century, and formerly frequented the marshes 

 of the Dee Estuary. A pair nested on Hilbre Island in 1857 (Coward, 

 " Birds of Cheshire," p. 102). 



The nest is large and bulky and the same nest may be occupied 

 year after year. The eggs (see British Bird Egg Cabinet, drawer 6) 

 are laid early in the year and do not greatly exceed in size those of the 

 Carrion Crow. They are three to six in number, and have a ground 

 colour of bluish or greyish-green, thickly blotched and overlaid with 

 brown. 



