88 CORVIDJS. 



when food is to be obtained ; and so destructive are these 

 Hooded Crows to young lambs, eggs, or poultry, that in 

 the Orkney and Shetland Islands, where they are nume- 

 rous, rewards at the rate of twopence for every Crow were 

 paid by the local authorities up to the year 1835, in con- 

 sequence of which many were annually destroyed. On 

 the coast they feed upon sand-worms, shell-fish, and 

 almost any marine production. A pair were observed 

 giving chase to a small Sandpiper, which they knocked 

 down, killed, and devoured. Mr. Selby says, " I have 

 repeatedly observed one of these birds to soar up to a 

 considerable height in the air, with a cockle or mussel in 

 its bill, and then drop it upon the rock, in order to obtain 

 the included fish." Dr. Fleming, in his Philosophy of 

 Zoology, considers instinct, in this degree, as bordering 

 closely upon intelligence, as implying a notion of power, 

 and also of cause and effect. May not such an act be re- 

 ferred to knowledge gained by experience ? 



When removed from the vicinity of the sea shore, or the 

 banks of tide rivers, these birds seek the same sort of food 

 as the Carrion Crow, preferring animal substance of any 

 kind, seldom resorting to any vegetable production unless 

 driven to it by stern necessity. Their voice is more shrill 

 than that of the Carrion Crow ; but they are said to vary 

 their tone occasionally, producing two cries, the one hoarse, 

 the other sharp. 



So numerous are these birds on some of the western 

 islands' of Scotland, that a flock of them were seen feeding 

 on shell-fish on the east coast of Jura, after a violent storm, 

 which did not contain less than five hundred, and not a 

 single black Crow among them. Mr. Salmon, in his obser- 

 vations made during three weeks' sojourn in Orkney, says, 

 " We found the Hooded Crow in tolerable plenty ; not 

 associating together in communities, but, like the Crow, 



