ROYSTON, OR HOODED CROW. 87 



that part of the country. I shot the first young pair, 

 and ascertained that the Hooded one was the female, 

 and the Carrion was the male, which confirmed me 

 in my conjecture of the sexes of the parents. Ever after 

 young and old were unmolested by me ; but, notwithstand- 

 ing the increase of number every year after the first one, 

 only one pair came annually to build on these beech trees." 

 Another remarkable instance is noticed in Mr. Atkinson's 

 Compendium of the Ornithology of Great Britain, page 30, 

 where a male of the Hooded Crow paired with a female of 

 the Carrion Crow at Aroquhar, on Loch Long, and this 

 singular attachment had subsisted three or four years ; their 

 nest was like that of the Carrion Crow, in the fork of a tall 

 pine, and the young brood had already flown; but the 

 party were unable to procure one of them, or to ascertain 

 which of the parents they most resembled. In further 

 proof of birds in a wild state sometimes pairing with others 

 not of their own species, I may quote a letter received from 

 R. H. Sweeting, Esq., of Charmouth, stating that a keeper 

 brought him a pair of Harriers, genus Circus, which he had 

 just shot together at their nest in a furze brake, in the act 

 of feeding their young, the female of which proved to be 

 a ring-tail, and the male an example of Montagu's Harrier. 

 Another instance is recorded in the seventh volume of the 

 Magazine of Natural History, page 598, by Mr. Henry 

 Berry, in the following terms. With respect to the 

 Thrush, I recollect a singular case : in the garden of James 

 Hankin, a nurseryman at Ormskirk, in Lancashire, a 

 Thrush and a Blackbird had paired : this was well known 

 to a number of individuals, myself among them. During 

 two successive years the birds reared their broods, which 

 were permitted to fly, and evinced, in all respects, the 

 features of strongly-marked hybrids. Several instances are 



