THE HOODED CROW. 11 



lambs and injured or helpless mammals, or birds ; also eggs (even 

 of birds as large as Buzzard and Cormorant), field-mice, reptiles, 

 frogs, fish, mollusca, insects (chiefly beetles), and a little corn. 



Distribution. — England and Wales. — Resident. Breeds here 

 and there on coast from Isle of Wight to Cornwall and north 

 Devon, and in Cumbrian and Pennine Hills, and Wales. Rare 

 visitor eastern counties and midlands (bred Essex, 1889). 

 Breeds Isle of Man. Scotland. — Resident Breeds fairly commonly, 

 especially in west and higher districts and on islands, especially 

 Hebrides and Shetlands; scarcer Orkneys. More widely distri- 

 buted from late autumn to spring. Ireland. — Resident. Breeds 

 wilder sea-cliffs and some mountains, especially in west. 



Migrations. — British Isles. — In Scotland seems regular autumn- 

 to spring-immigrant, sometimes in considerable numbers ; in 

 Ireland small flocks occasionally noted, but elsewhere only 

 vagrant-movements of a bird here and there. 



Distribution. — Abroad. — Europe generally. Represented by 

 allied forms in Fseroes, Iceland, Spain, some Mediterranean islands, 

 Greece, Arabia and Palestine to north-west India and Himalayas ; 

 in Canary Islands and nor.h Africa; also in north and east Asia, 

 Greenland, and North America. 



CORVUS CORNIX 



2. Corvus comix comix L. — ^THE HOODED CROW. 



CoRVUS CoRNix Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, i, p. 105 (1758 — Europe. 



Restricted typical locality : Sweden). 



Corvus comix Linnaeus, Yarrell, ii, p. 275 ; Saunders, p. 2-15. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Back of neck, 

 mantle, scapulars, back, rump, breast, belly, under tail-coverts, 

 and axillaries french-grey, feathers with very fine dark mesial 

 streaks ; head, throat, wings, tail, and tibial feathers black ; 

 nasal and rictal bristles glossy-black ; crown and nape glossed 

 greenish-blue ; ear-coverts and chin greenish ; throat blue-purple, 

 lower-throat mixture of black and french-grey (feathers of throat 

 long and lance-shaped as Carrion-Crow) ; upper tail-coverts mixture 

 of french-grey and blue-purple ; tail, outer feathers glossed 

 bluish-green, inner reddish-purple ; bastard-^\ ing, primary-coverts, 

 and outer primaries glossed greenish-blue ; inner primaries, 

 secondaries, and wing-coverts reddish-purple ; under wing-coverts 

 black-brown, glossed blue-purple. This plumage is acquired by 

 complete moult in autumn. Summer. — ^No moult. Abrasion has 

 not much effect, but some gloss is lost and grey becomes less pure 

 and tinged brownish. 



Nestling. — (Not examined.) 



