404 



NESTING OF THE HOODED CROW. 



•^"^^ 



more compact nest with tlie luuk of trees ; and in all cases this species breeds very early 



in the season. 



It is said that the Hooded Crow will souiutiuics breed with the common species, and 



the following curious observations are recorded in the " Field Naturalist," and quoted by 



Mr. Yarrell in his history of the bird. 



" For four successive years I have had opportunities of witnessing the pairing of the 



carrion Crow and the Hooded Crow upon some large beech-trees which surrounded my 



house in Forfarshire. They never 

 re-occupied the old nest, nor did 

 they always build their nest on 

 the same tree ; nor was I posi- 

 tively certain that they were the 

 same individuals who returned 

 every year to these trees, though 

 it is probable that they were, 

 for they were never molested. 

 Knowing the predatory propen- 

 sities of the carrion Crow on 

 hens' eggs, young chickens, and 

 even turkey poults, I would have 

 shot them had they been a pair 

 of carrion Crows ; but I was 

 anxious to watch the result of 

 what appeared to me at the time 

 a remarkable union. 



Judging from the manners of 

 the two biixls, the almost evident 

 incubations and carefulness exhi- 

 bited, I should say that the Hooded 

 Crow is the female, though the 

 carrion Crow did frequently sit 

 upon the eggs. After the young 

 of the first year took wiiig, I per- 

 ceived that the one was a carrion 

 and the other a Hooded Crow, 

 and this distinctive character was 

 maintained in the young which 

 were hatched every year, so long 

 as I remained in that part of the 

 country. I shot the first young 

 pair, and ascertained that the 

 hooded one was the female, and 

 the carrion was the male, which 

 confirmed me in my conjecture of 

 the sexes of the parents. Ever 

 after, old and young were unmo- 

 lested by me ; but notwithstanding 

 the increase of number every 

 year after tlie first one, only one 

 pair came annually to build in 

 these beech-trees." 

 This species has often lieen tamed, and displays much aifection for its owner. One of 

 these birds, which had been wounded and cajjtured, was placed in a walled giirden 

 together with tlie poultry, with whom it soon made friends. In proce-ss of time it 

 recovered from its wound, took flight and disappeared. Jiut after an absence of some 

 months it returned to its nUl quartei's, and \oluntarily took its place again w itli the poultiy 



I'llIl.irriXE CROW,— Cornis Siacnsia. 



