The cry of the Hooded Crow is a hoarse ' krdaaj often repeated two or 

 three times in succession ; sometimes a double note is heard like the syllables 

 ' kurruck.' Early in the year, during the pairing-season, he utters a variety of 

 notes, often opening and closing his wings, spreading his tail, and performing 

 other curious evolutions in the air. 



It is a somewhat later breeder than its congeners, and seldom begins 

 nest-building before the middle of April. It probably pairs for life. A 

 variety of sites are chosen for the nest ; sometimes it is in a tree, sometimes 

 on a cliff, either by the sea or inland, and occasionally on the ground beside 

 some stone on a steep heathery bank. The nest is composed of a bulky 

 foundation of large sticks, twigs, dead heather stalks, old bones, reeds, turf, 

 etc. in fact, anything that comes handy, and is lined with a few feathers 

 and much wool, rabbits' fur, and hair. Some nests, especially those on cliffs, 

 are enormous structures, as the birds return to the same habitation year 

 after year. The outside materials of the nest are usually whitened and 

 bleached by the weather in such situations. The cup which is prepared for 

 the reception of the eggs is beautifully soft and rather deep, and the nest 

 generally swarms with vermin, especially when the young are hatched. 



From four to five eggs are laid ; they vary from pale green to bluish 

 green in ground-colour, spotted, blotched, or streaked with olive-brown of 

 different shades, and violet-grey underlying markings ; some specimens have a 

 few black hair-like scrawlings on the large end of the egg. On some eggs 

 the markings are so numerous as to hide much of the ground-colour, on others 

 they are very few, while on a few specimens the markings are so faint as 

 to be almost invisible. 



They vary in length from 1-84 to 1-50 inch, and in breadth from 

 i - 38 to i '05 inch. They are absolutely indistinguishable from those of the 

 Carrion Crow. 



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