THE GREY CROW. 311 



adds : — "There is a record, however, of its having done so near 

 Scarborough, on two or three occasions/' 



From what has been written on the grey crow, as a bird of Great 

 Britain, it would appear to be more common in Ireland generally, 

 than in England, or on the mainland of Scotland.* Mr. Mac- 

 gillivray remarks, that it "is very abundant in the Hebrides, the 

 Shetland, and Orkney islands," vol. i. p. 531. I have observed 

 the species to be so, on the islands off the coast of Ireland ; where 

 rocks are necessarily its breeding places. Many build in the pre- 

 cipitous marine cliffs of the Gobbins, outside the northern entrance 

 to Belfast bay, as numbers of jackdaws also do ; together with the 

 raven and the chough. These cliffs are the haunt of innumerable 

 sea-fowl. The sea-shore or its vicinity is the favourite resort of this 

 bird — winch may occasionally be seen mingled with Grallatores 

 and gulls, at the edge of the in-coming waves at Belfast bayt — 

 but it is likewise resident in far inland localities. Sir Wm, Jardine 

 states, that according to his observation, rocks are preferred as a 

 nesting-place. Mr. Macgillivray (vol. i. p. 533) seems to 

 doubt its building at all in trees ; but around Belfast, trees in the 

 immediate vicinity of its " beat " are preferred to rocks a little 

 more distant, where the raven and jackdaw find a home. In 

 some very tall and fine beech trees, on a lawn bordering the bay, 

 several pairs of these birds have built for many years, and two or 

 three of their nests occasionally appearing in a single tree, suggest 

 the idea of an infant rookery. When, however, more nests than 



* With respect to Swansea in Wales, we learn the following from Mr. Dillwyn's 

 Fauna and Mora of that locality : — "Hooded crow never common in this neighbour- 

 hood ; about forty years ago I watched a pair, which throughout the winter were 

 always to be seen on the sea-shore. * * * Thev disappeared in the spring." 

 p. 6. (1848.) 



f Mr. Poole remarks : — " On the 10th of August, I saw these birds flocking along 

 the course of the Elbe, between Hamburgh and Magdeburgh. Large numbers were 

 distributed along the shores in company with gulls, whose habits they seemed to 

 imitate, for they frequently dipped down to the water while on wing, and stretched out 

 their feet to support themselves, while they picked up whatever morsel had attracted 

 their attention. In the mountains of Silesia they endure the utmost severity of the 

 winter to gaiu a scanty livelihood in the vicinity of towns, into the centre of which 

 they sometimes venture, or on hills which face the south, and from whose declivity the 

 snow has consequently been partially dissolved before the weak and glittering rays of 

 the sun. They flock together in considerable numbers, perhaps as many as 100 or 150 

 in a troop." 



