458 THE HOODED CROW. 



in a space of three-quarters of a mile. I watched the result. 



The crow won, killed the snipe, but did not carry it off when I 



went up to it. On speaking to a citizen about the hoody on 



my way home he said they were common on the sands about 



1836 — they used to feed on the carcases of the horses. In 1843 



he caught two in one day. The plan he took was the same as I 



had done — baited a hook with flesh, attached to a long line 



passed through the dead horse, carefully hiding the string 



amongst the entrails, and passed it over the sand hills out of 



sight ; but, he said, they were very wary. He had tried baited 



hooks on the sands close to the carcase, but without success ; 



the only way was to hide the string. This reminds me of the 



wretched condition of the English cavalry before the battle of 



Agincourt, for in "King Henry V." Shakespeare makes the 



French lord exclaim — 



" Why do you stay so long, my Lords of France? 

 Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones, 

 Ill-favour'dly becomes the morning field. 

 Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host, 

 And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps. 

 Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks, 

 With torch-staves in their hand, and their poor jades 

 Lob down their heads, dropping their hides and hips, 

 The gum down-roping from their pale dead eyes ; 

 And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit 

 Lies foul with chewed grass, still and motionless ; 

 And their executors, the knavish crows, 

 Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour." 



I have often seen them on the mussel scaups at Eden, along 

 with carrions and sea birds. In December 1856, on going 

 through the Priormuir by the rough cart road amongst the 

 whins, I saw a hoody wildly engaged with a full-grown rabbit, 

 which was running from side to side of the road, the crow on 

 its back fiercely dabbing at its head. When it saw me it flew 

 off. The rabbit was alive, but both of its eyes out. This 

 proves the power and fierceness of the hoody crow, and shows it 

 can kill a full-sized rabbit as well as a stamp or gun. The 

 general colour is ash grey, tinged with purple, but the head, 

 fore neck, wings, and tail are, like the carrion crow's, deep 

 black, glossed with blue and green reflections, the grey feathers 

 pencilled with black lines. The bill, feet, and claws are black, 

 and fully as long as the carrion's. The young are nearly black, 

 except the breast — dusky grey. It is 20 inches long by 39. 

 Like the raven and corby, they remain paired all year, and for 

 all their faults (as thought by man) they live to a long age, 

 which shows that Nature at least wishes to prolong the species. . 



