4 BLACK BIRDS. 



feathered closely up to the bill. Its cry is harsher 

 than a Rook's 'Caw!' and may be written 'Caar!' 

 Tfce Carrion Crow nests in high trees or on cliffs, 

 rarely in a bush or on the ground. It is omnivorous, 

 packing at times with Rooks and Jackdaws to grub 

 the fields, purloining eggs and young birds, and is as 

 much at home demolishing walnuts in an orchard as 

 in stalking solemnly at the tide-line in search of any 

 animal matter cast up by the sea. The Hooded Crow 

 is held to be a variety of this bird, and their areas of 

 distribution are complementary, interbreeding taking 

 place where they overlap. 



ROOK 19 inches ; featherless patch at base of bill. 



RAVEN 24 inches ; like a large Carrion Crow. 



HOODED CROW 19 inches ; body ash-gray. 



CHOUGH 16 inches ; red bill and legs. 



JACKDAW 14 inches ; nape gray. 



CHOUGH. Plate 2. Length, 16 inches. Plum- 

 age entirely glossy black ; bill long, slender, curving 

 downwards, and, like the legs and feet, bright red. 

 Resident 



Eggs. 3-5, grayish or yellowish white, spotted 

 and blotched with gray and pale brown; 1-5 x I'l 

 inch (plate 121). 



Nest. Of sticks and twigs, lined with wool and 

 hair, and placed in holes in cliils. 



Distribution. Coast cliffs, Dorset to Cornwall; 

 Lundy Island ; coast cliffs of Wales ; Isle of Man ; 

 JHIHT Hebrides; coast cliffs of Ireland. Formerly 

 bred inland in mountainous parts ; now much 

 diminished in numbers. 



