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rare, as Mr. A. O. Hume states (I. c.) that, besides the one specimen brought back from 

 Cashmere by Mr. Brooks, he has only obtained two examples. Severtzoff records it from 

 Turkestan, where it breeds but is on the whole a rare bird. 



Its range in Siberia appears rather peculiar ; for Middendorff remarks that whereas the 

 Hooded Crow is common west of the Lena, it is replaced by the present species east of that 

 river ; and on the west side Corvus corone does not seem to have been met with by him. Pallas 

 (Zoogr. Pi.-A. i. p. 831) says that it is rare in Southern and Temperate Russia, but occurs in 

 Eastern Siberia to Kamtchatka. In Eastern Siberia both the Japanese Crow (C. japonensis) and 

 the present species are found. Of this latter species Dr. Eadde observed large flocks passing the 

 Tarei-nor on migration on the 15th April, and in the Bureja Mountains the time of migration 

 is about the 18th April. In the Transbaikal region he found it not uncommon on the main 

 roads in company with Corvus japonensis. Mr. Swinhoe has obtained C. corone in China; and I 

 have examined a specimen from Hakodadi, in Japan, which agreed closely with our British bird. 

 Here, as in China, there are, however, allied forms differing sufficiently to entitle them to 

 specific rank. In America C, corone is replaced by C. americanus and other allied species. 



Of all birds that are held by the farmer and the game-preserver in bad repute, none, 

 perhaps, deserves its bad name more than the Carrion-Crow. A bold and unsparing robber, 

 and cunning and wary as he is impudent and voracious, he is everywhere looked on with 

 disfavour. In the more cultivated portions of our islands the Carrion-Crow has been so success- 

 fully persecuted that it is but, comparatively speaking, rarely to be met with, though in those 

 portions of the United Kingdom where it has some chance of escaping destruction it is still 

 common enough. In the more unfrequented parts of Scotland, where the moors are extensive, 

 and where the shepherds have their flocks scattered over a tolerably large tract, the Crow plays 

 sad havoc amongst the game, and not unfrequently destroys the young lambs. It is an arrant 

 egg-stealer, and will carefully examine the nests of almost all the smaller birds, as well as the 

 Grouse, Partridges, &c, and devour the eggs; nor are wild Ducks and water-birds free from 

 its marauding proclivities in case it discovers their nests, and Mr. Weir records an instance of a 

 Carrion-Crow, being suddenly frightened when flying over his head, dropping a wild Duck's egg 

 which it had been carrying whole in its bill. When in the neighbourhood of a farmyard it will 

 steal the eggs which the hens may lay in the hedges on the outskirts of the homestead ; and any 

 duckling or chicken that may wander away from the mother has but little chance should a 

 Carrion-Crow happen to be near. Young hares and rabbits are frequently taken by the Crows ; 

 and it is said that several will collect and attack a ewe when, in the pains of labour, she has 

 retired to some out-of-the-way place; and, watching the time when the poor beast is least 

 able to repel the attack, they will kill her as well as the lamb ; or even when the lamb has 

 been produced, and the ewe has tenderly cleaned it, they will watch their opportunity and 

 attack the lamb, frequently killing it. If any large fish be cast up on the shore, or where there 

 is a piece of carrion, the Crow is almost sure to be met with; but not only will it feed on flesh, 

 &c, but (for scarcely any thing comes amiss to its ravenous maw) it does not disdain to pick 

 amongst refuse heaps, and follows the herds of swine when driven to pasture to search for refuse 

 grains of corn, and is said to be especially fond of hunting about for undigested portions of 

 potatoes in localities where that vegetable forms a staple article of food. It frequents the 



