86 CORVID-E. 



" The Hooded Crow has been known to breed near Scar- 

 borough on two or three occasions. In one instance, a 

 female Hooded Crow was observed to pair with a Carrion 

 Crow on a large tree at Hackness, where they succeeded in 

 rearing their young. The Carrion Crow was shot by the 

 gamekeeper ; but the following year the Hooded Crow re- 

 turned with a new mate of the same sable hue as the former 

 one to her old nest. The Carrion Crow and the young- 

 Crows were again all shot ; the old female by her vigilance 

 escaped all the efforts of the keepers to destroy her, and a 

 third time returned with a fresh mate ; she was not, however, 

 again so successful, but was shot, and is now preserved in 

 the Scarborough Museum, The young birds varied, some 

 resemblinsr the Hooded and others the Carrion Crow in their 

 plumage. Mr. Selby, in his address to the Berwickshire Na- 

 turalists' Club in September 1834, mentions, on the authority 

 of Mr. Armstrong, that a Hooded Crow had in the previous 

 spring paired with a Carrion Crow at Fowberry, where it was 

 killed from the nest, containing eggs. Examples of a similar 

 nature, Mr, Selby observes, have also been known to occur 

 in Dumfries-shire by our colleague Sir William Jardine ; and 

 Temminck remarks, that in the northern countries of Europe, 

 where the C. corone is rare, a mixed breed is sometimes pro- 

 duced between it and the C. comix. A correspondent in 

 the Field Naturalist thus relates the result of his own obser- 

 vations on the same subject : — " For four successive years I 

 had opportunities of witnessing the pairing of the Carrion 

 Crow and the Hooded Crow on some large beech trees which 

 surrounded my house in Forfarshire, They never reoccupied 

 the old nest, nor did they always build their nest on the 

 same tree ; nor was I positively certain that it was the same 

 individuals who returned every year to these trees, though it 

 is probable they were, for they were never molested. Know- 

 ing the predatory propensities of the Carrion Crow on hen*'s 



