16 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



whole, and the finder had departed without more 

 ado in search of other carrion or victims. 



When fairly on the hunt, the Hooded Crow will 

 single out a Dunlin from a flock and deliberately 

 chase it down ; nor will he hesitate, when hard 

 pressed, to skin a dead comrade and devour him. I 

 have found the skins of Guillemots, Rooks, and small 

 Gulls turned inside out by Crows as neatly as could 

 have been done by a taxidermist, and certainly with 

 greater apparent ease. And I have known a Hoodie 

 appropriate half a cocoanut, washed up on the 

 beach, and clean out the contents. And the vile 

 meals this bird contentedly makes off carrion beggar 

 description. Altogether, in this locality, the Hooded 

 Crow is deserving of protection. I do not think the 

 numbers visiting us to-day are so great as thirty 

 years ago. 



" Hoodie " has a decided partiality for mussels. 

 Old Breydoners affirm that in severe weather, when 

 the tide had fallen, and the "runs" or deeper 

 channels were clear of ice, the Hooded Crow re- 

 paired thither and sought for these molluscs. 

 Wrenching one from its byssus fastenings the bird 

 would fly up to a certain height and drop it upon 

 the hard surface of the ice, descending to devour the 



