THE CARRION CROW. 81 



9. THE CARRION CROW. 

 Corvus Corone, LIN. Corneille, BUF. Die Raben Jcr'dhe, BECH. 



Description. This bird resembles the preceding in almost 

 every particular, except that it is smaller, being only one and a 

 half feet long, and has not a conical, but a rounded tail. The 

 whole plumage is black, with a tinge of violet on the lower 

 part of the body. 



Observations. In many parts of Germany this is a very 

 common bird, so that in groves which it frequents, more than 

 one nest is often built upon the same tree. The female lays four 

 to six green eggs, spotted with grey and brown. In places where 

 they do not migrate, but remain the whole year, young birds 

 have been taken as early as March, and successfully reared. 

 They are to be treated like the foregoing, and are even easier 

 to tame. I know cases in which old birds have been taught to 

 come and go ; and even wild birds, which having been fed in 

 the farm yard throughout the winter, have flown away at the 

 beginning of spring, and bred, yet, at a fixed time in the 

 autumn, have returned to be fed, and become as tame as barn- 

 door fowls. 



Their food in a wild state consists of insects, worms, mice, 

 grain, and different kinds of fruit. 



In winter they may be easily caught in towns and villages 

 by paper cones, under which a piece of meat is placed, and 

 whose edges are smeared with bird lime. They may also be 

 taken on limed twigs placed in the yard or near the house, to 

 which they will be attracted by scattered grain or dung. 



ADDITIONAL. Its partiality for animal diet in a putrid state, 

 has obtained for this bird the name Carrion Crow, by which it is 

 generally distinguished ; it is also sometimes called the Flesh 

 Crow, and the Gor, or Gore Crow, as well as the Black Crow, 

 the Corby Crow, and the Hoody Bran. In many of its habits 

 and characteristics it closely resembles the Eaven, being a bold, 

 mischievous, predatory bird, with which man, and especially the 

 agriculturist, is continually at war. And were it not for its 

 extreme caution and sagacity, there is reason to believe, so nume- 

 rous and persevering are its foes, that the species must have long 

 since become extinct, or, at all events, have been driven out of 

 the more highly cultivated parts of the country. On the con- 

 trary, however, we find that it is precisely in these parts that 

 these black-coated depredators do most thickly congregate. Year 



