18 THE CROW FAMILY 



the course of an hour some fifty were seen passing from the quarter 

 under observation, and there may have been as many from the other 

 side. Meanwhile, from the growing congregation on the ridge, there 

 descended through the thickening dusk the strangest of evensongs, 

 a weird, wild medley of many sounds, the barking of dogs, the bleating 

 of goats, the lowing of cows, the becking of grouse calling across the 

 moorland, and now and then the deep belling challenge of the stag. 

 It was to this unique lullaby that the raven folk sang themselves into 

 slumber a slumber that any night might rudely be broken by the 

 crack of the keeper's gun, for, even here, in this rocky fastness, the 

 bird is not safe from its deadliest foe. Yet, in spite of repeated 

 assaults, the diminished bands, driven by the inexorable force of 

 custom, return, sooner or later, to the old familiar place, made 

 sacred by the blood of generations of their kind. 



THE CARRION-CROW AND THE HOODED-CROW 



[F. B. KIRKMAN] 



The carrion- and the hooded-crow resemble closely the raven in 

 their habits, but they resemble one another still more closely, not only 

 in habits, but also in structure. In fact, the only important difference, 

 from a systematic or classificatory point of view, generally recognised 

 between them is the coloration of the plumage, the crow being black 

 and the hoodie black and grey. This, combined with the fact that, 

 in the regions such as Siberia, Central Europe, and Scotland, where 

 the nesting areas of the two species overlap, they interbreed and 

 produce hybrids, which in turn are fertile, has led some ornithologists 

 to the conclusion that the two forms could not properly be regarded 

 as more than varieties of the same species. But the view that the 

 fertility of hybrids constitutes an absolute criterion of species 

 can no longer be entertained, for it would involve abandoning the 

 present specific distinction between such, well-defined forms as the 



