CARRION-CROW. oil 



The Carrion-Crow makes almost as engaging a pet as the Raven. Its 

 sagacity and cunning form the subject of many interesting anecdotes^ and 

 have gained for the bird an amount of awe and reverence amongst the 

 superstitious country-folk only exceeded by that attached to the Raven 

 itself. 



The food of the Carrion-Crow is principally composed of animal sub- 

 stances ; but so voracious is his appetite that nothing at all edible is 

 refused ; in fact, he might justly be called omnivorous. Such a varied 

 diet naturally sends the Carrion-Crow into almost all situations in search 

 of it. Sometimes he seeks his food much after the manner of the Gulls, 

 hovering above the water and taking garbage floating on the surface. As 

 a rule^ though, he keeps well inshore, following the margin of the waters, 

 ever and anon alighting to prey upon the varied diet the ever-restless 

 ocean sets before him. Now it is a drowned sheep or lamb; then a 

 stranded fish; or more rarely a mussel, with which, with a cunning we 

 cannot help admiring, he flies up to some height in the air and then drops 

 it to the ground to break open the shell. He will find out any carrion 

 lying in secluded corners, visit the pastures which have been manured 

 with refuse from the slaughterhouses, and greedily devour the entrails, 

 pick the bones^ or revel in the decaying flesh. He will also search the 

 pastures and the newly sown lands in search of insects, grubs, or grain with 

 as much pertinacity as the Rook, the only time perhaps in his thieving 

 life that he is of any great service, if we do not look upon him in the light 

 of a scavenger. But we must now glance at that portion of the Carrion- 

 Crowds food to obtain which brings the bird into such evil repute. In the 

 lambing-season the bird is dreaded by the shepherds quite as much as they 

 dread the Raven, and helpless lambs and weakly ewes too often fall victims 

 to this bold and relentless robber. The game-coverts and the Grouse- 

 moors are also visited and plundered ; the eggs are diligently searched for 

 and devoured ; and later in the year the young birds fall victims. The 

 hen- wife also has just cause to dread the Carrion-Crow ; and, in close 

 attendance on the poultry-yard, he will carry off the young chicks the 

 moment an opportunity is offered. Waterton, in his charming ' Essays,' 

 thus writes of the Carrion-Crow's love for poultry : — " The cook had in her 

 custody a brood of ten ducklings, which had been hatched about a fort- 

 night. Unobserved by anybody, I put the old duck and her young ones 

 in a pond nearly three hundred yards from a high fir tree in which a 

 Carrion-Crow had built its nest ; it contained five young ones almost 

 fledged. I took my station on the bridge, about one hundred yards from 

 the tree. Nine times the parent Crows flew to the pond, and brought 

 back a duckling each time to their young. I saved a tenth victim by 

 timely interference." But his prey is not confined to birds alone; young 

 rabbits, leverets, moles, and other small animals are captured. He will 



