86 THE CARRION CROW. 



THE HABITS OF THE CARRION CROW. 



" Inter aves albas, vetuit consistere corvum." OVID. Met. 



The crow was ordered not to hold a place 

 Mid whiter favourites of the feather'd race. 



Tins warrior bird is always held up to public exe- 

 cration. The very word carrion, attached to his 

 name, carries something disgusting with it; and 

 no one ever shows him any kindness. Though he 

 certainly has his vices, still he has his virtues too ; 

 and it would be a pity if the general odium in which 

 he is held should be the means, one day or other, 

 of blotting out his name from the page of our British 

 ornithology. With great propriety he might be 

 styled the lesser raven in our catalogue of native 

 birds ; for, to all appearance, he is a raven ; and I 

 should wish to see his name changed, were I not 

 devoutly attached to the nomenclature established 

 by the wisdom of our ancestors. 



The carrion crow is a very early riser ; and, long 

 before the rook is on the wing, you hear this bird 

 announcing the approach of morn, with his loud 

 hollow croaking, from the oak to which he had re- 

 sorted the night before. He retires to rest later 

 than the rook : indeed, as far as I have been able to 

 observe his motions, I consider him the first bird on 

 wing in the morning, and the last at night, of all 

 our non-migrating diurnal British birds. 



When the genial voice of spring calls upon him 

 to prepare for the continuation of his species, the 

 carrion crow, which, up to this period, has been 



