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CORVINE. 



in their plumage." Mr. Selby, in his address to the Ber- 

 wickshire Naturalists' Club in September 1834, mentions, 

 on the authority of Mr. Armstrong, that a Hooded Crow 

 had in the previous spring paired with a Carrion Crow at 

 Fowberry, where it was killed from the nest, containing 

 eggs. Examples of a similar nature, Mr. Selby observes, 

 have also been known to occur in Dumfries-shire by our 

 colleague Sir William Jardine ; and Temminck remarks, 

 that in the northern countries of Europe, where the C. 

 corone is rare, a mixed breed is sometimes produced between 

 it and the C. comix. A correspondent in the Field Natu- 

 ralist thus relates the result of his own observations on the 

 same subject : " For four successive years I had oppor- 

 tunities of witnessing the pairing of the Carrion Crow and 

 the Hooded Crow on some large beech trees which sur- 

 rounded my house in Forfarshire. They never reoccupied 

 the old nest, nor did they always build their nest on the 

 same tree ; nor was I positively certain that it was the 

 same individuals who returned every year to these trees, 

 though it is probable they were, for they were never 

 molested. Knowing the predatory propensities of the 

 Carrion Crow on hen's eggs, young chicks, and even 

 turkey poults, I would have shot them had they been a 

 pair of Carrion Crows ; but I was anxious to watch the 

 result of what appeared to me at the time a remarkable 

 union. Judging from the manners of the two birds, the 

 almost constant incubation, and carefulness exhibited, I 

 should say that the Hooded Crow was the female, though 

 the Carrion Crow did frequently sit upon the eggs. After 

 the young of the first year took wing, I perceived that the 

 one was a Carrion and the other a Hooded Crow, and this 

 distinctive character was maintained in the young which 

 were hatched every year, as long as I remained in 



