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145 



to be satiated, they will frequently hide their food till 

 hunger becomes more urgent. They have been 

 observed to ascend with a crab to a considerable 

 height and let it fall on a rock to break the shell, and 

 then instantly pounce down upon it and bear it away 

 for immediate consumption. In like manner, a friend 

 of the late Dr. Darwin saw, on the northern coast of 

 Ireland, above a hundred crows preying at once on 

 mussels which they despatched by a similar process. 

 Near the Cape of "Good Hope they have been seen 

 to dispose in the same way of land tortoises. We 

 read too of an ill-starred philosopher, in ancient times, 

 who was killed by an oyster impinging on his bald 

 pate,, which a crow had mistaken for a block of stone. 



During the winter, these birds consort with the 

 rooks and hooded crows, and sometimes intermingle 

 with the latter, so as to give rise to a hybrid race. In 

 this season, numerous flights of various species of the 

 first genus assemble about our dwellings, keeping 

 much on the ground, sauntering much about the flocks 

 and shepherds, hovering near the tracks of thelabourers, 

 and sometimes hopping on the backs of pigs and 

 sheep, with such apparent familiarity, that they might, 

 be mistaken for domestic birds. At night, they retire 

 into the forests to lodge among the large trees, resort- 

 ing to the general rendezvous from every quarter, 

 sometimes from the distance of nine miles all around, 

 whence they again sally out in the morning in quest 

 of subsistence. As long as this association lasts, 

 the hooded and carrion crows nre observed to grow 

 very fat, while the rooks continue always lean. To- 

 wards the close of winter, the latter also remove into 

 other regions, whereas the carrion crows resort to the 

 nearest large forests, where they pair, and seem to 

 divide their territory into districts of about three 

 quarters of a mile in diameter, each of which is 

 allotted to the maintenance of its appropriate family, 

 an arrangement which is said to subsist inviolate 

 during the lives of the separate parties. The female 

 lays from four to six eggs, of a bluish green, and 

 marked with large and black spots, of cinereous grey 

 and olivaceous , and weighing about five drachms each. 

 She sits about three weeks, during which time the 

 male supplies her with food. 



The carrion crow often wages war with the lesser 

 species of hawks ; but it is especially courageous in 

 the breeding season ; nor will it suffer the kite, 

 buzzard, or raven, to approach its nest with impunity. 

 The young do not finally break off connexion with the 

 parents till the commencement of a new brood. As 

 they naturally attack small game, when wounded or 

 exhausted, they have, in some countries, been bred 

 for falconry, as in Turkey, where gentry of inferior 

 quality paint them of different colours, carry them on 

 their right hand, and call them back by the frequent, 

 repetition of the syllable hoob. Although their flight 

 is neither easy nor rapid, they generally mount to a 

 very great height, and indulge much in a whirling 

 motion. Their croaking in the morning is said to 

 indicate fine weather. As they are exceedingly 

 cunning, have an acute scent, and commonly fly in 

 large flocks, it is difficult to get near them, and still 

 more so to decoy them into snares. Some of them, 

 however, are caught by imitating the screech of the 

 owl, and placing limed twigs on the high branches 

 of a tree ; or they are drawn within gun shot by 

 means of an eagle-owl, or such other nocturnal bird, 

 raised on perches, in an open spot. They are 

 destroyed too, by throwing to them garden beans in 



NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



which rusty needles are concealed. They arc like- 

 wise caught by cones of paper, baited with raw flesh. 

 As the crow introduces his head to devour the bait, 

 which is near the bottom, the paper, being besmeared 

 with bird lime, sticks to the feathers of the neck, and 

 he remains hooded ; unable to rid his eyes of the 

 bandage, he rises almost perpendicularly in the air, 

 the better to avoid striking against any thing, until, 

 quite exhausted, he sinks down, always near the spot 

 from which he mounted. These, and other modes of 

 ensnaring crows, are chiefly practised in the winter 

 season, when the ground is covered with snow or 

 bound up in frost, for then they more readily approach 

 human habitations, and seek to pick up some subsist- 

 ence from the dung of animals that have passed along 

 the highways. But many of them are killed, at all 

 seasons, in various parts of the continent, by strewing 

 overthe grounds which they frequent, pellets of minced 

 meat, mixed with the powder of nux vomica. 



The carrion crow appears to combine the disposi- 

 tions of two or three other species of the genus. In 

 form, in colours, and in its predatory habits, it resem- 

 bles the raven , in restlessness and disposition to 

 hoard, it has considerable analogy to the jack-daw ; 

 and in the last of these particulars, as well as in its 

 general cunning, it has some traits of the magpie. It 

 follows the general habit of the whole race in being 

 easily tamed, and taught to repeat words without 

 much difficulty. But still, it has peculiar characters, 

 and belongs to a certain description, or a certain state 

 of countries. It is not a bird of the perfect wilderness, 

 an inhabitant of the open moor or the cliff; neither is 

 it most favourable to those places which are in a high 

 state of improvement. Wooded tracts, which arc 

 rather warm and fertile, but somewhat in a state of 

 nature, are the localities in which it is most abundant; 

 and if we are *o assign it a topographical position, 

 we may say, that its locality is intermediate between 

 that of the raven and that of the rook. The raven, 

 the carrion crow, the hooded crow, and the rook, may 

 be considered as the typical crows, at least in Europe , 

 and their localities are, the hooded crow, the raven, 

 the carrion crow, and the rook, gradually approaching 

 nearer the cultivated grounds. 



Corvus comix, the hooded crow, or, in some parts 

 of the country, the " hoody." This species is con- 

 siderably larger than the black crow ; being about 

 twenty inches long, forty in the stretch of the wings, 

 and upwards of twenty ounces in weight, so that, 

 with the exception of the raven, it is the largest of 

 the crow tribe found in the British islands. Its 

 localities are more peculiar than those of many of the 

 others, but it is very generally distributed over the 

 globe, and in some places of almost all latitudes it is 

 the crow. In England, with the exception of some 

 of the moors in the north, it is a winter visitant, not 

 making its appearance before October, and departing 

 in the spring. But in the north it is much more 

 common, and continues all the year round. In the 

 Lowlands of Scotland it is rather rare, though not 

 quite unknown in any district ; but in the Highlands, 

 beyond the line of regular cultivation, it is almost the 

 only crow that is known, with the exception of the 

 raven. It is a strong bird and a powerful flier, and 

 ranges over the moors and mountain bogs, levying 

 very heavy contributions on the nests and young of 

 ground birds, which breed in those places ; and when 

 the snow is on the ground, so that it finds but little 

 food irdand, it resorts to the shores of the sea m.d 

 K 



