ROYSTON, OR HOODED CROW. 91 



Carrion was the male, which confirmed me in my conjec- 

 ture of the sexes of the parents. Ever after young and 

 old were unmolested by me ; but, notwithstanding the in- 

 crease of number every year after the first one, only one 

 pair came annually to build on these beech trees." Another 

 remarkable instance is noticed in Mr. Atkinson's Compen- 

 dium of the Ornithology of Great Britain, page 30, where 

 a male of the Hooded Crow paired with a female of the 

 Carrion Crow at Aroquhar, on Loch Long, and this singu- 

 lar attachment had subsisted three or four years ; their nest 

 was, like that of the Carrion Crow, in the fork of a tall 

 pine, and the young brood had already flown ; but the 

 party were unable to procure one of them, or to ascertain 

 which of the parents they most resembled. In further 

 proof of birds in a wild state sometimes pairing with others 

 not of their own species, I may quote a letter received from 

 R. H. Sweeting, Esq., of Charmouth, stating that a keeper 

 brought him a pair of Harriers, genus Circus, which he had 

 just shot together at their nest in a furze brake, in the act 

 of feeding their young, the female of which proved to be 

 a ring-tail, and the male an example of Montagu's Harrier. 

 Another instance is recorded in the seventh volume of the 

 Magazine of Natural History, page 598, by Mr. Henry 

 Berry, in the following terms : " with respect to the Thrush, 

 I recollect a singular case : in the garden of James Hankin, 

 a nurseryman at Ormskirk, in Lancashire, a Thrush and a 

 Blackbird had paired : this was well known to a number of 

 individuals, myself among them. During two successive 

 years the birds reared their broods, which were permitted 

 to fly, and evinced, in all respects, the features of strongly- 

 marked hybrids." Several instances are known in which 

 the female of the Black Grouse, usually called the Grey 

 Hen, has bred in a wild state with the Common Pheasant ; 

 and hybrids between the Pheasant and Domestic Fowls, 



