4 BLACK BIRDS. 



feathered closely up to the bill. Its cry is harsher 

 than a Rook's ' Caw ! ' and may be written ' Gaar ! ' 

 The Carrion Crow nests in high trees or on cliffs, 

 rarely in a bush or on the ground. It is omnivorous, 

 packing at times with Rooks and Jackdaws to grub 

 the fields, purloining eggs and young birds, and is as 

 much at home demolishing walnuts in an orchard as 

 in stalking solemnly at the tide-line in search of any 

 animal matter cast up by the sea. The Hooded Crow 

 is held to be a variety of this bird, and their areas of 

 distribution are complementary, interbreeding taking 

 place where they overlap. 



ROOK — 19 inches ; featherless patch at base of bill, 



E.AVEN^24 inches ; like a large Carrion Crow. 



HOODED CROW— 19 inches ; body ash-gray. 



CHOUGH— 16 inches ; red bill and legs. 



JACKDAW — 14 inches ; nape gray. 



CHOUGH.— Plate 2. Length, 16 inches. Plum- 

 age entirel}^ glossy black ; bill long, slender, curving 

 downwards, and, like the legs and feet, bright red. 

 Resident. 



Eggs. — 3—5, grajash or yellowish white, spotted 

 and blotched with gray and pale brown; 1'5 >< I'l 

 inch (plate 121). 



Nest. — Of sticks and twigs, lined with wool and 

 hair, and placed in holes in cliffs. 



Distribution. — Coast cliffs, Dorset to Cornwall ; 

 Lundy Island ; coast cliffs of Wales ; Isle of Man ; 

 Inner Hebrides ; coast cliffs of Ireland. Formerly 

 bred inland in mountaiuous parts ; now muclx 

 diminished in numbers. 



