HOODED CROW 



Corvus cornix 



N Scotland the Hooded Crow is pretty widely distributed, 

 and breeds in suitable localities, including the Orkneys 

 and Shetlands. In England, however, it is chiefly known 

 as a winter visitor, though a few pairs breed in various 

 localities. In Ireland it is a common and widely distributed 

 species. 



The favourite haunts of the Hooded Crow are the 



moors, forests, and hill-farms, where it is alike detested by the gamekeeper and 

 the shepherd on account of the depredation it commits. It preys on every 

 creature which it can overpower, killing weakly lambs, young hares and 

 rabbits, and destroying the eggs and young of all kinds of birds. On 

 finding a nest it does not rest until it has appropriated the entire contents ; 

 even young birds are carried off to some quiet corner, where they are torn 

 to pieces and devoured. 



The food of the Hooded Crow is chiefly composed of carrion and animal 

 flesh, but so voracious is his appetite, that nothing comes amiss to him. A 

 dead sheep rarely lies on the hills for a few hours without having both the 

 eyes gouged out. On the coast he feeds on the garbage cast up by the tide, 

 dead fish and scraps of offal and shell-fish, especially mussels, which he carries 

 up into the air and breaks by letting them fall upon the stones beneath. 

 The newly ploughed fields are carefully searched for worms and grubs, and 

 the stubble-fields, in autumn, for scattered grain. In the breeding-season his 

 depredations are extensive ; no nest is safe from him. He may be seen 

 quartering on the ground watching for some Grouse's or Duck's nest, which 

 he will entirely destroy. On the coast, piles of broken shells may be found on 

 some patch of short grass, whither he carries them impaled on his powerful 

 bill, to devour them at his leisure. 



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