OHDEU PASSERES. 331 



the parents have the address to carry the eggs of partridges 

 in their bill. They lay but once in the year, unless the eggs 

 or young be destroyed by any accident. They will engage 

 with the accipitres in defence of their young and eggs. It 

 is said that the conjugal union of these birds continues 

 during life. 



The carrion crow will learn when domesticated to speak 

 like the raven, and displays in its general habits no small 

 sagacity. It will sometimes seize chickens from the poultry- 

 yard, and will also destroy such small birds as it can find in 

 the fowler's snare, which it escapes falling into itself, pro- 

 bably by the perfection of its sense of smell ; birdlime, or 

 glue ; and meat, infused with nux-vomica, are used therefore 

 to take them instead of the net. 



White and varied varieties are sometimes met with, espe- 

 cially in high latitudes, as in the ravens ; indeed, a great 

 general analogy prevails between these species, in nearly all 

 their characters, essential and indifferent. 



A third species, the Rook, C. Frugilegus, has also great 

 analogy with the last — indeed is not to be distinguished from it 

 without considerable difficulty. The principal distinctive 

 character consists in the nudity of the base of the bill, and 

 of the forehead, and upper part of the throat in the rook, 

 which parts are covered with feathers in the carrion crow ; 

 but as even this is not observable in the young birds, it 

 seems likely to be rather an artificial than a natural distinc- 

 tion, arising from the rook thrusting its beak into and raking 

 the ground, and thus causing a trituration on the parts in 

 question, which may efface the feathers. To recognize the 

 rook, therefore, before its first moult, we must observe that 

 its bill is longer than the head, and is entirely straight ; 

 while in the crow it is not longer than the head, and the 

 upper mandible is bent at the point, and jagged towards the 

 end on both sides ; the feathers, moreover, of the front part 



