OF KOIiTHTIMBEELAXD A20) DrUHAJj:. 33 



is probably a mere race of the Carrion Crow, as has been pointed 

 out by several distinguished ornithologists. The two forms 

 readily breed together. Mr. Yarrell mentions three or four 

 instances of their having done so both in England and Scotland ; 

 but it is in the latter country where this intercourse most fre- 

 quently takes place. The Hooded Crow being a migrant in 

 England, it is only when some accidental cii'cumstance detains 

 it here that the two forms can be associated during the breeding 

 season. In the northern parts of Scotland however both are 

 stationary, and there eveiy year they very often breed together. 

 In the spring of 1850, I had an opportunity of observing the 

 habits of these birds in the neighbourhood of Elgin ; both birds 

 are there plentiful, and they are about equally abundant, and 

 breed indiscriminately. The black and the grey form just as 

 frequently paired together as two of the black or two of the 

 grey ; and some of the young from the same nest were black 

 like the Carrion Crow, and others grey like the Hooded Crow ; 

 while some partook of the characters of both parents, the grey 

 colour being reduced in quantity and irregularly disposed. One 

 nest, which I met with at Elgin, had three in the brood entirely 

 black, the other two black and grey. In that neighbourhood the 

 mixed varieties are quite as common as the pure forms ; some 

 are almost full black, with only a slight admixture of grey on 

 the back or shoulders ; others are more or less grey below and 

 entirely black above ; indeed no two seem to be exactly alike. Of 

 two examples that I shot, one might have passed for a Carrion 

 Crow, it was so uniformly black, there being only a very little 

 grey on the under parts of the body, the other had a considerable 

 patch of grey on the chest, but it graduated on all sides into the 

 black. In this case, as in many others, the central parts of the 

 feathers were black, the margins grey; and towards the boundaries 

 of the patch the central black portion increased, and thus the 

 grey became blended and lost definition. The dark specimen 

 proved on dissection to be a female, the grey one to be a male. 

 The female was evidently a breeding bird. The reproductive 

 organs in both cases were in a perfectly healthy and fully devel- 

 oped state, and in no way resembled those of hybrids. 



