ROYSTON, OR HOODED CROW. 85 



preferring to build their nests separately. These are placed 

 among the rocks, and upon the sides of the deep chasms 

 that are to he found upon the sides of the hills ; generally 

 upon the ledge of a rock, among the overhanging heather. 

 The outside of the nest is composed of withered heather, 

 and large roots or stalks, and it is lined with wool and hair. 

 In one nest that we looked into, we found three young 

 ones, and they were almost in full plumage, which had pre- 

 cisely the same colours as that of their parents." Mr. 

 Hunt, of Norwich, in his History of British Birds, says he 

 was told by good authority that a pair of these birds had 

 built a nest, and reared their young, during the season of 

 1816 in the neighbourhood of King's Lynn, and there is 

 good reason to believe that this species reared its young in 

 the vicinity of Yarmouth in the season of 1843. 



Mr. W. C. Williamson, Curator to the Natural History 

 Society, Manchester, in his notes on the appearance of rare 

 Birds in the vicinity of Scarborough, as printed in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society for the year 1836, says, 

 " The Hooded Grow has been known to breed near Scar- 

 borough on two or three occasions. In one instance, a 

 female Hooded Crow was observed to pair with a Carrion 

 Crow on a large tree at Hackness, where they succeeded in 

 rearing their young. The Carrion Crow was shot by the 

 gamekeeper ; but the following year the Hooded Crow re- 

 turned with a new mate of the same sable hue as the former 

 one to her old nest. The Carrion Crow and the young 

 Crows were again all shot ; the old female by her vigilance 

 escaped all the efforts of the keepers to destroy her, and a 

 third time returned with a fresh mate ; she was not, how- 

 ever, again so successful, but was shot, and is now preserved 

 in the Scarborough Museum. The young birds varied, 

 some resembling the Hooded and others the Carrion Crow 



