ROYSTON OR HOODED CROW. Corvus oornut 



to the expedient of carrying its prey to a great height in the air, and smashing the shell 

 by letting it fall upon a rock. Sometimes its ingenuity has been very ill rewarded by 

 the loss of its dinner, for no sooner has the shell struck upon the rock than it is seized 

 and carried off by another Hooded Crow which has concealed itself near the spot. As the 

 mussels are often very firmly bound to the rock, this ingenious bird employs another 

 mode of breaking their shells. He takes a tolerably large stone in his beak, rises 

 perpendicularly above the mussel bed, drops the stone at random upon the black mass 

 of molluscs below, and descends to feed on the bodies of those which have been crushed 

 by the missile. 



Not only does the Hooded Crow feed upon such harmless diet as has already been 

 mentioned, but it makes great havoc among small and young birds, and has often been 

 known to hover about the shore sportsman, and carry off the dead and wounded birds 

 as they fall to the gun. It also haunts the farmyard when it finds a deficiency of food 

 in the open country, and darting among the poultry, kills and carries off young chickens, 

 or breaks and drains the eggs on which the hens are sitting. Sickly and very young 

 lambs are also persecuted by this voracious bird, who goes its rounds among the flocks as 

 regularly as a sentinel, and if its watchful eye should discover a lamb or sheep lying 

 on its back in a ditch, is sure to hasten its death by punching out its eyes with its long 

 and powerful bill. For these reasons, the Hooded Crow is entirely detested by the country 

 people, many of whom are imbued with sundry superstitions concerning its origin and 

 object. 



Like many of the same tribe, it is a most annoying neighbour to the larger birds, 

 especially those of a rapacious nature, and never can allow a hawk, heron, or owl to pass 

 within ken without mobbing it in a very persevering manner. 



The Hooded Crow never breeds in society, but always builds its nest at some distance 

 from the homes of any other of the same species, so that, although a forest or a range of 

 cliffs may be inhabited by these birds, the nests are scattered very sparingly over the whole 

 extent. The structure of the nest is somewhat similar to that of the crows and rooks, 

 being a mass of sticks and heather stalks as a foundation, upon which is placed a 

 layer of wool, hair, and other soft substances. Sometimes the bird builds a better and 



DD 2 



