OCTOBER. 173 



might have been only a congestion of the rook traffic, 

 which ordinarily takes place in autumn across the 

 breadth of the country, towards the east coast. 



MIXED CROWS. 



When the wind changes to the east, hooded crows 

 at once become more conspicuous than rooks and 

 jackdaws in the flocks of migrant crow birds, showing 

 that the stream of bird life is flowing again across the 

 German Ocean ; and many of the all-black com- 

 panions of these black-and-grey crows are carrion 

 crows, although generally supposed to be rooks. In 

 the south of England hooded crows appear as sociable 

 migrants, whereas carrion crows are generally known 

 as solitary pairs, remaining year after year in the 

 vicinity of their nesting-sites. But the habits of the 

 birds are really identical, the fact that a single pair 

 of carrion crows will occupy the same place for years 

 showing that they drive off their young every year, 

 and these go to form similar companies to those of 

 the hooded crows, only, unlike these, they are almost 

 indistinguishable from the young rooks of the year. 

 Thus the fact that a large migration of. carrion crows 

 reaches our east coast every year is generally over- 

 looked, while no one can help noticing the arrival of 

 the hooded crows. 



