CARRION CROW. 97 
CARRION CROW. 
Corvus Corone, Linn. 
Pl. XV., figs. 5-6. 
Geogr. distr.—Entire Palearctic region, from the extreme west to 
Japan and China ; common in the southern counties of England, and 
resident. 
Food.—Grubs, worms, Mollusca, refuse fish, reptiles, carrion, 
young birds, poultry, and game. 
Nest.—Bulky ; formed of sticks and twigs, plastered with earth and 
lined with wool, hair, moss, or other soft materials. 
Position of nest.—Generally in the forked branch of a tree, some- 
times that of the fir; or among rocks. 
Number of eggs.—4-6. 
Time of nidification.—IV-V. 
This species is solitary in its habits, and is seldom seen 
in this country in numbers excepting when attracted by 
carrion, or when roosting, in the winter. It is the terror of 
the shepherd, as it will tear out and devour the eyes and 
tongues of sickly sheep and lambs; it is therefore fortu- 
nate that-even two nests are rarely seen near together. 
Seebohm remarks that the breeding season of the Carrion 
Crow is somewhat late; and in this respect it differs con- 
siderably from the Raven, or even the Rook, approaching 
most closely the Jackdaw. The Raven’s eggs are said to 
be often laid in February, the Rook’s in March; but the 
Carrion Crow seldom commences nesting duties until the 
latter end of April or beginning of May. It is very 
probable that this bird pairs for life; and each season the 
old nest will be visited and used again, provided the owners 
are not molested. 
Some years since, whilst at Iwade, near Sheppy, I met 
a boy with four eggs of this bird, which he had taken 
shortly before from a nest at the top of a tall elm tree 
close by. One of these eggs was no larger than that of a 
Turtle Dove, and, although the boy had already ruined all 
four by boring them with a pointed stick in order to get rid 
of the contents, I purchased them of him for the sake of 
this abnormal specimen. It was probably what a keeper of 
poultry would call a ‘“‘cock’s egg ’—an egg without yelk ; 
such eggs of the Domestic Fowl are of common occurrence, 
and J have one or two as small as a Linnet’s egg, but they 
seem to be of rarer occurrence with wild birds. 
