Tue ZooLocist—May, 1875. 4431 
where the carrion crow and the hooded crow are to be found in 
about equal numbers, must often have observed in the fields, during 
the early spring, individuals of the one kind associated with those of 
the other. In fact, when at that time you see a pair of crows, it is 
just as common to find that one is gray and the other black, as that 
both are of the same colour. The gamekeepers and persons of that 
description have no doubt whatever as to both the black and the 
gray “ hoodies,” as they are there called, being of the same species.’ 
This gentleman examined twelve nests, and found that the parents 
of five of them were, the one black, the other gray; that of four, 
both parents were gray ; and that of three, both parents were black. 
The broods of the black and gray parents were found, some to 
resemble one parent, some the other; and in one instance, where 
the parents were both hooded crows, one of the young was of a 
pure black, and all the rest were, like the parents, gray. Mr. Selby, 
in his address to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, in September, 
1834, after mentioning that a hooded crow had, in the previous 
spring, paired with a carrion crow at Fowberry, goes on to state 
that examples of a similar nature ‘ have also been known to occur in 
Dumfriesshire by our distinguished colleague, Sir William Jardine.’ 
And Temminck remarks that in the northern counties of Europe, 
_where the C. corone is rare, a mixed breed is sometimes produced 
between it and the C. cornix. In Forfarshire, likewise, these two 
birds have been known to breed together. Indeed, it would appear 
that whenever these so-called species occur together in spring they 
freely pair. Baron De Selys-Longchamps, in his ‘ Notes on various 
Birds observed in the Italian Museums in 1866,’ recently published 
in the ‘Ibis,’ states that Salvadori ‘made me remark that Corvus 
cornix, which breeds on the coast of Liguria, seems to be derived 
from C.corone. Specimens are often black, with gray on the 
breast only ; others have gray on the back, but the upper and lower 
tail-coverts are black. In Sardinia, on the contrary, the C. cornix 
resembles the light gray of Northern Europe, which winters in 
Belgium.’ Specimens showing this intermixture seem not to be 
uncommonly found scattered about. Degland and Gerbe state that 
varieties of the hooded crow are sometimes nearly black. I have 
in my possession an individual all black, with the exception of a 
gray band across the breast. It was killed near Richmond, York- 
shire. The fact,of this extensive interbreeding of the carrion and 
hooded crow is very interesting, and is assuredly contrary to 
