ii8 WOODLAND, MOOR, AND STREAM 



gether, the chance of knocking them over is very 

 slight indeed, for one will watch while the other feeds. 

 On hearing the least sound, or at the sight of a sus- 

 picious object, there is a dip up and down of the body 

 a flirt with the outspread tail, and ' croake-e, croake-e ! ' 

 the keeper may turn his attention to some other 

 matters, for he will not see them again during the 

 next hour or two. As a rule he is put out of the way 

 by trap or poison ; he is in such bad odour with 

 game preservers that one crow will keep three or four 

 on a large estate on the look-out for him. 



In a confined state he resembles the raven very 

 much in his manoeuvres and method of feeding. 



The hooded crow, or grey crow of the coast-people, 

 is in shape like the carrion crow, but his habits are 

 very different. He likes the sea-shore and the downs 

 gently rising from the edge of the water arms of the 

 sea ; and the creeks that run inland for miles are his 

 favourite places of resort when he pays his visits, for 

 he is more or less a bird of passage. I have watched 

 him there many a time as he moved about continually. 

 You will not find numbers of them, but single pairs 

 dotted along the coast close to the water's edge in 

 autumn and winter. The black-backed gull and 

 herring-gull range the coast-line, the common gull the 

 creeks and flats. Feeding near, and sometimes with 



