Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 42/ 



especially rejoices in the carcases of horses, which after being 

 skinned are left upon the beach. The refuse of the slaughter- 

 house, when spread on meadows for manui'e, particularly at- 

 tracts it inland. 



The carrion crow is known to me as found in the north, east, and 

 west of the island : in the south, as already mentioned, it was no- 

 ticed by Smith, yet was never seen by Mr. R. Ball during his resi- 

 dence at Youghal. About Clonmel, however, Mr. R. Davis, jun., 

 states that it is always to be found, though not very common. In 

 the neighbouring county of Kilkenny, the attention of a gentleman 

 of my acquaintance was one day attracted by a " black crow" ha- 

 ving an extraordinary white appearance about the head. It flew 

 about a hundred yards after it was first seen, and then alighted on 

 the ground. On running up to ascertain the cause of the phseno- 

 menon, he was astonished to see the identical bird fly off^ an ordi- 

 nary crow ; but on reaching the place where the bird had "pitched," 

 a duck's egg was found, which being carried in the bill had pro- 

 duced the appearance described — the egg was still whole*. 



When at Glenarm Park, count}^ of Antrim, in 1833, I was inform- 

 ed by the gamekeeper, a native of England, and who knew the bird 

 well there, that he had seen a few about Glenarm, and that in the 

 breeding-season one of these birds and a gray crow (C Comix) were 

 constantly associated together for some weeks, and he had no doubt 

 were paired. A Scotch gamekeeper who verv soon afterwards sup- 

 plied the place of my informant, told me the following year that he 

 had occasionally killed the carrion crow in Glenarm Park, but con- 

 sidered the species rather raref. He assured me that when game- 

 keeper in Scotland, he had repeatedly seen the carrion and gray 

 crow paired, and knew an instance of such a pair being mated for 

 two or three years, and building in the same tree annually. The 

 identity of the gray one was sufficiently manifest by its being minus 

 a foot, which had not improbably parted company from its owner in 

 some trap. In the instances which came under the observation of 

 my trustworthy informant, the gray crow was considered to be the 

 male, on account of its comparative absence from the nest, &c. The 

 young birds in one nest examined by this gamekeeper were stated to 

 have exhibited, some the plumage of the gray, and others, that of 

 the carrion crow. 



This species is sometimes, if not generally, infested with parasitic 

 insects (lice) to an extraordinary^ degree, so much so, as in one in- 



* In Macgillivray's ' British Bifds ' (vol. i. p. o2G), an instance of the 

 carrion crow bearing off the egg of a wild duck whole is recorded bv Mr. 

 Weir who witnessed it — this gentleman and Mr. Hogg contribute full and 

 interesting narrations of this bird to the work. The contributions of the 

 latter, called a " Shepherd " in the preface, have all the racy spirit of the 

 mountain air about them. Mr. Waterton states that the carrion crow car- 

 ries eggs off, " not in his bill but on the point of it, having thrust his upper 

 mandible through the shell." 



t I saw sj)ecimcns which had been obtained there exhibited as " vermin " 

 on one or both occasions. 



