54: 



cause, and the Scandinavian peasantry believe that they hold a sort of council, or " Tine," and 

 sit in judgment on offending members of their community. I have seen several such assemblages 

 in Finland ; but the Crows certainly had no such serious business on hand. Mr. H. C. Miiller, 

 in his notes on the avifauna of the Faeroes, refers to these meetings, and gives as a reason the 

 appearance of a strange bird of prey, which appears probable, as it is well known that if a Hawk, 

 Owl, or even a cat is seen by a Crow, it will raise an alarm, and soon collect numbers of its 

 friends in order to mob and repel the invader. 



Macgillivray writes (Brit. B. i. p. 532) that " perhaps the most remarkable habit of the 

 Hooded Crow is one which most persons who have observed it consider indicative of the 

 approach of rain, but which I have not found to have any connexion with that phenomenon. In 

 quiet, and more especially in dull close weather, one of them, perched on a stone or crag, con- 

 tinues to croak for a long time, being responded to at intervals by another that has taken a 

 station at some distance. Its voice is not so loud or clear as that of the Carrion-Crow, but 

 resolves itself into a rather harsh sound, resembling the syllable Craa pronounced by a genuine 

 Aberdonian." 



The Hooded Crow breeds much later than the Raven, and does not usually lay before about 

 the middle of April or from then to the middle of May, according to the season. Its nest is 

 constructed of sticks lined with grass and wool, and is a tolerably bulky structure. It is placed 

 sometimes amongst the rocks, and at others in a tree, generally at a considerable altitude, but 

 sometimes only a few yards from the ground. I usually found them in tolerably large trees, 

 about fifteen or twenty feet above the ground; but Mr. Wiese writes (J. f. O. 1859, p. 40) that 

 in the neighbourhood of Greifswald, where high trees are scarce, the Crow often builds so low 

 down that one can easily look into its nest. Mr. H. Goebel (J. f. O. 1870, p. 190) says that in 

 Uman, Southern Russia, a couple of Herons were driven away from their nests by Crows, and 

 that he subsequently found one of the deserted nests tenanted by a Hooded Crow and the other 

 by a Black Kite (Milvus migrans). In Scotland, as also in the Fseroes, the Hooded Crow is said 

 to- breed in the rocks, never in a tree; and Mr. H. C. Miiller says that he has known the nest to 

 be placed on a dwelling-house. 



The eggs, usually five in number, are, judging from a series in my collection, practically 

 undistinguishable from those of Corvus corone, and equally variable, some being almost spotless, 

 whereas others are so closely spotted with brownish olive as to look almost uniform brownish in 

 colour. Specimens from the north of Europe are larger in size than others from the south, those 

 from Finland measuring from If § by l- 4 % inch to If by lfj, whereas eggs which I took at 

 Ilovetz, in Wallachia, only measure lf§ by 1^% to If by 4 % and Iff by l- 4 % inch respectively. 



The present species is by many authors considered to be merely a variety of the Carrion- 

 Crow ; and there is no doubt that in localities where the two species are found they not unfre- 

 quently interbreed ; but the young birds resulting from these alliances are never, so far as I can 

 ascertain, precisely similar to either parent, but, like all hybrids, are intermediate in appearance, 

 thus, in my opinion, demonstrating that, although closely allied, and not, indeed, differing in 

 habits, note, or mode of nidification, the present species and Corvus corone are fairly distinct ; and 

 this is borne out by the difference in their respective geographical ranges. In my article on 

 Corvus corone I go fully into this question, so will say nothing further on the subject here. 



