UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 267 



others seem as grave as if they were the judges, 

 and others again very bustling and noisy. The 

 meeting breaks up in about an hour, when one 

 or two are generally found dead on the spot ; 

 and it has been supposed, by those who have 

 observed them carefully, that they were cri- 

 minals punished for their offences. Frederick 

 says he has read that in the Orkneys, too, they 

 meet in spring, as if to deliberate on concerns 

 of importance ; and after flying about in this 

 collected state for eight or ten days, they sepa- 

 rate into pairs, and retire to the mountains. 



Along with those we saw several carrion crows 

 with their glossy plumage of bluish black ; they 

 not only associate with rooks and other crows, 

 but approach our dwellings and saunter among 

 the flocks ; and I really saw some hopping on 

 the backs of pigs and sheep, with such apparent 

 familiarity that one might have imagined they 

 were domestic birds. 



Towards the close of winter the hooded crow 

 and the rook remove to other regions, but the 

 carrion crows resort to the nearest woods, which 

 they seem to divide into separate districts, one 

 for each pair; and it is remarkable that they 

 never intrude on each other's portions. 



Crows may well be called omnivorous birds, for 

 they eat every thing flesh, eggs, worms, grain 3 

 fish, and fruit. Shell fish, it is said, they very 

 ingeniously crack by dropping them from a great 



2 A 2 



