428 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



stance to deter a friend from skinning one he had received, just after 

 it was shot. On mentioning this to another amateur taxidermist, it 

 was remarked, that in skinning one of these birds, he became " co- 

 vered" with its parasites. According to my ov.-n observation, birds 

 of prey, or species partly carnivorous, are more infested v>ith Uce than 

 others ; and particularly with those belonging to the most active and 

 stirring genera of their attractive tribe ! From Mr. Denny's forth- 

 coming work, ' Monographia Anoplurorum Britanniee,' we expect 

 much novel information on this subject. 



The Gray Crow*, Corvus Comix, Linn., is a common 

 species in Ireland, and resident in all quarters of the island. 

 In the north and east it has come under my ow-n observation 

 at every period of the year, and is fully as numerous in sum- 

 mer as at any other time, although at this season it is absent 

 from England. In summer I have remarked it to be com- 

 mon in the west and south, and my correspondents there 

 agree in noticing it as a resident species. 



From what has been written on the gray crow as a bird of Great 

 Britain, it would appear to be more common in Ireland generally, 

 than in England, or on the mainland of Scotland. The sea-shore or 

 its vicinity is the favourite haunt of this bird, but it is likewise resident 

 in far inland localities. Sir William .lardine states, that according 

 to his obser\'ations rocks are j^referred as a nestling-place ; and Mr. 

 Macgillivray (vol. i. p. 533) seems to doubt its building at all in 

 trees ; but around Belfast it prefers trees in the immediate vicinity 

 of its " beat" to rocks which are a little more distant, and where the 

 raven and jackdaw find a home. In some very fine and tall beech 

 trees on a lawn bordering the bay, several pairs of these birds have 

 built for many years, and two or three of their nests occasionally ap- 

 joearingin a single tree, suggest the idea of an infant rookery. When 

 however more nests than one appear in any tree, they are I believe 

 the erections of different years, or are not tenanted at the same time. 

 In wooded glens, and other localities where the Conifera bore a very 

 small proportion to the deciduous trees, I have remarked the par- 

 tiality of this bird for nestling in the pine. Mr. \Villiam M'Calla of 

 Roundstone, states that " the gray crow is very common in Conne- 

 mara, and breeds in all the wooded islands of the lakes, in other 

 woods and thickets, and even in thorn-bushes in the vicinitj' of 

 houses : it laj^s from three to five eggs. These birds are not ac- 

 cused of doing much harm to the keepers of poultry, the dead ani- 

 mal matter at all seasons on the shore supplying abundance of food." 

 He further remarks, that gray crows " are verj^ cunning in seeking 

 their food, and that in the upper part of Roundstone Bay they may 

 be observed picking up the Buccinum boreale [imdatum ?] , rising with 

 them into the air and then letting them fall on the rocks to break 

 them : in this they are frequently unable to succeed, and have to drop 



* In tlie north of Ireland it is connnonly called by diis, its most distinc- 

 tive appellation. 



