HOODED CROW. 547 



tains ; [but the Hooded Crow waits for a more temperate season, and 

 seldom sets about nesting-duties before the middle of April. Its nest is 

 sometimes placed in a tree, sometimes on the rocks, both inland and on 

 the ocean cliffs. It will also, where large trees and rocks are scarce, make 

 its nest in bushes and small birches and firs only a few feet from the 

 ground ; and Gray states that it will sometimes build on the roofs of huts. 

 The nest is composed of almost every material which can be applied to the 

 architect's purpose. Large sticks and twigs, stalks of heather, bones, moss, 

 turf, wool, and feathers are all used. From the fact that the bird returns to 

 its old habitations year after year, many nests are very bulky structures, 

 and the greater part of the outside material is bleached by the weather. 

 The inside is smooth, soft, and compact, and rather deep. The eggs of 

 the Hooded Crow are four or five in number, and are absolutely undistin- 

 guishable in size and colour from those of the Carrion-Crow. They exhibit 

 precisely similar types and variations as the eggs of that bird, rendering a 

 description of them unnecessary. 



^Yhen I was in Siberia in 1877 I had an excellent opportunity of investi- 

 gating the question of the interbreeding of the Hooded and Carrion-Crows. 

 The boundary-line between the enormous colony of Hooded Crows in 

 Russia and West Siberia and the equally vast colony of Carrion-Crows in 

 East Siberia lies between the towns of Tomsk and Krasnoyarsk, which 

 are about 350 miles apart. As you travel eastwards from Tomsk, for about 

 120 miles the Hooded Crow only is to be seen on the roadsides, and during 

 the last 120 miles before reaching Krasnoyarsk the Carrion-Crow alone is 

 found. But in the intermediate hundred miles or more a very curious 

 state of afi'airs presents itself. About one fourth of the Crows are thorough- 

 bred Hoodies ; one fourth are pure Carrion-Crows ; and the remain- 

 ing half are hybrids of every stage — mulattoes, quadroons, octoroons, and 

 so on, ad infinitum. The fact that these hybrids present every intermediate 

 form between the two species is prima facie evidence o£ their fertility. I 

 succeeded, however, in getting positive evidence of this fact. On the 

 Arctic circle, in the valley of the Yenesay, early in May, whilst the ground 

 was still covered with six feet of snow, a couple of hybrid Crows paired 

 together and built a nest near the top of a pine tree. On the 11th it 

 contained an egg; on the 21st I climbed again up to the nest and found 

 it to contain five eggs, two of which I took. On the 31st one egg was 

 hatched and the other two were chipped ready for hatching. On the 26tli 

 of June I again climbed up to the nest and found that one of the young 

 birds had either died or flown. I took the other two and shot the female. 

 She proved to be at least three parts Carrion-Crow. The feathers on the 

 sides of the neck, and on the lower part of the breast and belly are grey, 

 with dark centres. I was unable to shoot the male ; but I had ou various 

 occasions examined him through my binocular. He had more Hoodie 



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