541 



n 



been sitting for some time, however, the hen became much tamer and would not leave the nest 

 till the tree was struck with a stick. At this time also we noticed that the male bird was shyer, 

 and could only see him in the distance. When the young came out she laid down eggs and 

 rabbit's entrails near the nest ; and when watching at some distance we observed that both the 

 old birds fed the young." Mr. Lumsden sent both parent birds with the four young ones to me 

 for examination, having succeeded in securing the whole family ; and when I have done with 

 them they will, in accordance with his desire, be deposited in the British Museum. The male 

 bird is an ordinary Carrion-Crow ; and the female, which at the first glance appeared to be a 

 Hooded Crow, is, I find on closer examination, a hybrid, though approaching nearer to the 

 Hooded than to the Carrion-Crow in coloration of plumage. Two of the young birds closely 

 resemble the mother, whereas the other two are to all appearance ordinary Carrion-Crows, 

 exhibiting none of the characters of both species which I find in other hybrids. 



Some most interesting notes respecting the interbreeding of C. corone and C. comix are 

 published by the Bitter von Tschusi-Schmidhofen in the ' Journ. fur Orn.' 1869, p. 240. In this 

 instance the male bird was a Hooded Crow, and the female was a Carrion-Crow. All four young 

 birds were taken ; and he remarks that one was quite black, whereas the other three resembled 

 C. comix, but had the grey portions of the plumage intermixed with black. He adds that in 

 the Arnsdorfer district, in Southern Austria, where these young birds were bred, it is almost 

 impossible to obtain a pure-plumaged Corvus comix, as all are intermediate between that species 

 and C. corone, some being quite black, excepting that there are a few grey patches or spots in 

 the plumage. This would, I think, tend to show that Corvus comix is being gradually out- 

 numbered by C. corone, and is by degrees becoming extinct in that particular district. 



The nest and eggs of the Carrion-Crow closely resemble those of the Hooded Crow ; and in 

 a series of eggs of both species I cannot trace any difference, except that the eggs of each vary 

 somewhat inter se, as do the eggs of all their allies. 



The specimen figured, on the same Blate with Corvus comix, is an adult bird in my col- 

 lection, from Aboyne, in Scotland. On an extra, uncoloured Plate, are also figured the heads 

 of Corvus corax, C. umbrinus, C. tingitanus, C. affinis, and C. corone, and small figures of 

 C. tingitanus (which has the wings as in C. corax) and C. affinis, so as to show the deep secon- 

 daries and long wing of the latter compared with the other Bavens. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. E. Dresser. 



a, b, <j, 2- Aboyne, Scotland (J. Walters). c,pull. Belgium {Dubois). 



E Mus. Howard Saunders, 

 a, d, b, 2 . Zegri, Granada, March, c. Sparham, Norfolk, May 1873. 



E Mus. J. Lumsden, jun. 

 a, 6. Dumbartonshire, June 4th, 1874 (J.L.). 



E Mus. B. Sivinhoe. 

 a, 2 . Nowchow, February 1868 {R. S.). b, ? . Hakodadi, Japan, October 22nd, 1866 [Whitely). 



M 



