CORVID.E. 93 



We can remember when the Hooded Crow was a common autumn 

 visitor to N. Devon, where we have seen numbers of them at the mouth of 

 the Taw at low water on the mussel-beds. In company with Herring 

 and Lesser and Great Black-backed Gulls they would be seen Hying con- 

 tinually a short distance up into the air, and then dropping a mussel on 

 the rocks below in order to break the shell. From some cause or other 

 the Hooded Crows gradually became scarce and are now very rarely seen. 

 It could not be persecution, for so wary is this bird that an instance of 

 one being shot hardly ever came to our knowledge. Perhaps the over- 

 dredging of the mussel-beds has led to their being forsaken by the Crows. 

 "We were informed that a pair of Hooded Crows nested one spring in 

 Youlston Old Park, N. Devon. Mr. G. F. Mathew had reason to believe 

 that one had mated with a Carrion-Crow ('Naturalist,' I8G6, p. 359). 



Professor Xewton considers the Black and Hooded Crows only forms of 

 the same species {cf. YaiTell's B. Birds, 4th ed. ii. p. 274). Mr. Dresser, 

 however, says young birds, the produce of mixed marriages, are, like all 

 hybrids, intermediate in appearance, whence he judges that the two species 

 are fairly distinct. 



One occurred near Topsham, April Gth, 1841 (F. W. L. Eoss, MS. iii. p. 70). One 

 was killed in a field at St. Thomas, near Exeter, December 12th, 1849 (' Exeter Gazette'). 

 Two near Plymouth, Marcli I'lih, 1853 (B., MS. Notes). We saw one near Topsham, 

 October 21st, 1854; it was being mobbed by Rooks. A specimen was obtained in the 

 marshes near Newton Abbot in the autumn of 1854 (E. P., Trans. Devon. Assoc, viii. 

 p. 271). One was seen at Duryard, near Exeter, January 7th, 18GB (R. C). Two 

 were shot on Woodbury Common in December 1870, and are now in the possession of 

 Mr. W. Snow. One which occurred on the Dart is in the Torquay Museum. One waa 

 killed at Plymouth, March 31st, 1873. It is uncommon there (J. G.). Several were 

 seen by Mr. G. B. Curbiu in March 1877 at Watcombe Park, near Torquay (Zool. 1877, 

 p. 444). One was seen near Exmouth, November 15, 1881. A specimen was sliot near 

 Ilalwell, on the mud of the Kingsbridge Estuary, January 27th, 1886, by Sir Harold 

 Ilewett {E A. S. E., MS. Notes). About six have occurred in the Kingsbridge district 

 in twenty-five years (R. P. N., MS. Notes). 



The itooded Ciow used to visit Lundy Island in autumn and winter (Trans. Devon. 

 Assoc, viii. p. 308). 



Kook. Corviis frugilegus, Linn. 



[Anglo-Saxon Hroc, i. e. Croaker.] 



Ilesident, generally distributed in wooded districts, very abundant, and 

 in some places increasing enormously in number. There are many large 

 Kookeries in the neighbourhood of Exeter, and some pairs breed in the 

 elms in the Cathedral Close in that city. There was a famous Kookery in 

 Pixton Park, near Diilverton, but the trees were cut down in 1891. In 

 Sharpham Woods, on the Dart, immense numbers of liooks breed, and the 

 Piookery there is supposed to be the largest in the kingdom. 



Although Mr. Carlyle was of opinion that "to hold a dialogue with a 

 rookery'' was the best oxj^rcssion for the most utier confusion and be- 

 wildermcTit, wo must confess that we have often listened witli pleasure to 

 the confalmlations of the Books high above us in their breezy homes, and 



