26 THE CROW FAMILY 



biggest young one, although pushing himself forward, was often 

 deliberately passed over ; two were generally fed at each visit. A few 

 days later we came across a collection of twenty empty gulls' and 

 shags' eggs lying near a mossy stream in the vicinity, and the young, 

 after their execution, were found to have remains of beetles and 

 winkles in their gullets." The young and the mother were shot by the 

 keeper, and it was not owing to any feeling of mercy on his part that 

 the male bird escaped the same fate. 1 



When their young quit the nest, both species move about in 

 family parties ; and, as in the case of the ravens, these families, or, if 

 the young are destroyed in the nest, the pairs, tend to unite in bands 

 which vary in size and permanence according to the conditions of the 

 food supply and the degree of persecution to which they are subjected. 

 But it has been observed that, in some parts at least, the carrion- 

 crow, even when occurring in numbers, is not so gregarious as its grey 

 congener. 2 Both, however, are less exclusive than the raven, readily 

 mixing with one another, and sometimes, especially the hooded-crow, 

 with the rook and other species. They are also much more migratory, 

 our raven appearing to receive no accession to its ranks from abroad, 

 and to be stationary except for its local movements. 



Both species habitually collect from all parts to roost in still 

 larger flocks, and sometimes together, a fact that is taken advantage 

 of by gamekeepers and others interested in their extermination. 

 But they have never been found in our country repairing to their 

 sleeping quarters in the almost incredible numbers recorded in the 

 case of the closely related species of North America, the common-crow. 

 A very interesting account of its roosting habits has been written 

 for the American Department of Agriculture, a summary of which is 

 not out of place here, for it will serve to suggest lines of inquiry in 

 respect to our own crows. 3 



1 September 8, 1908. 



2 A. E. Knox, Ornithological Rambles in Sussex, 3rd edition, p. 102. 



3 W. H. Barrows and E. A. Schwarz, The Common Crow (C. americanus), Bulletin No. 6 of 

 the U.S.A. Department of Agriculture, pp. 9-25, 1895. 



