404 



NESTING OF THE HOODED CROW. 



more compact nest with the bark of trees ; and in all cases this species breeds very early 

 in the season. 



It is said that the Hooded Crow will sometimes breed with the common species, and 

 the followino- curious observations are recorded in the " Field Naturalist," and quoted by 

 Mr. Yarrell in his history of the bird. 



" For four successive years I have had opportunities of witnessing the pairing of the 

 carrion Crow and the Hooded Crow upon some large beech-trees which surrounded my 



house in Forfarshire. They never 

 re-occupied the old nest, nor did 

 they always bviild their nest on 

 the same tree ; nor was I posi- 

 tively certain that they were the 

 same individuals who returned 

 every year to these trees, though 

 it is probable that they were, 

 for they were never molested. 

 Knowing the predatory propen- 

 sities of the carrion Crow on 

 hens' eggs, young chickens, and 

 even turkey poults, I would have 

 shot them had they been a pair 

 of carrion Crows ; but I was 

 anxious to watch tlie result of 

 what appeared to me at the time 

 a remarkable union. 



Judging from the manners of 

 tlie two birds, the almost evident 

 incubations and carefulness exhi- 

 bited, I should say that the Hooded 

 Crow is the female, though the 

 carrion Crow did frequently sit 

 upon the eggs. After the young 

 of the first year took wing, I per- 

 ceived that the one was a carrion 

 and the other a Hooded Crow, 

 and this distinctive character was 

 maintained in the young which 

 \vere hatched every year, so long 

 as I remained in 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, old and young were unmo- 

 lested by me ; but notwithstanding 

 the increase of number every 

 year after the first one, only one 

 pair came annually to build in 

 * these beech-trees." 



This species has often been tamed, and displays much affection for its owner. One of 

 these birds, which had been wounded and captured, was placed in a walled garden 

 together with the poultry, with whom it soon made friends. In process of time it 

 recovered from its wound, took flight and disappeared. But after an absence of some 

 months it returned to its old quarters, and voluntarily took its place again with the poultry 



PHILTPPINE CROW.— C07-W.S Sinmsis. 



