90 



wickshire Naturalists' Club in September, 1834, mentions, 

 on the authority of Mr. Armstrong, that a Hooded Crow 

 had in the previous spring paired with a Carrion Crow at 

 Fowberry, where it was killed from the nest, containing 

 eggs. Examples of a similar nature, Mr. Selby observes, 

 have also been known to occur in Dumfriesshire by our 

 colleague Sir William Jardine ; and Temminck remarks, 

 that in the northern countries of Europe, where the C. 

 corone is rare, a mixed breed is sometimes produced be- 

 tween it and the C. comix. A correspondent in the Field 

 Naturalist thus relates the result of his own observations 

 on the same subject : " For four successive years I had 

 opportunities of witnessing the pairing of the Carrion 

 Crow and the Hooded Crow on some large beech trees 

 which surrounded my house in Forfarshire. They never 

 re-occupied the old nest, nor did they always build their 

 nest on the same tree ; nor was I positively certain that 

 it was the same individuals who returned every year to 

 these trees, though it is probable they were, for they were 

 never molested. Knowing the predatory propensities of 

 the Carrion Crow on hen's eggs, young chicks, and even 

 turkey poults, I would have shot them had they been a 

 pair of Carrion Crows ; but I was anxious to watch the 

 result of what appeared to me at the time a remarkable 

 union. Judging from the manners of the two birds, the 

 almost constant incubation, and carefulness exhibited, I 

 should say that the Hooded Crow was the female, though 

 the Carrion Crow did frequently sit upon the eggs. After 

 the young of the first year took wing, I perceived that the 

 one was a Carrion and the other a Hooded Crow, and this 

 distinctive character was maintained in the young which 

 were hatched every year, as long as I remained in that 

 part of the country. I shot the first young pair, and as- 

 certained that the Hooded one was the female, and the 



