548 BRITISH BIRDS. 



blood in him than the female^ having a very grey ring round the neck, 

 and showed a good deal of grey on the breast and under the wings. My 

 total bag of Crows at the Ku-ray'-i-ka was three thoroughbred Hoodies 

 (two males and a female), ten thoroughbred Carrions (nine males and one 

 female), and fifteen hybrids (seven males and eight females). These 

 figures, as far as they go, lead me to the conclusion that the female 

 Carrion-Crows were all breeding, away in the woods^ so that I rarely got 

 a shot at one ; whereas the female hybrids were most of them barren^ so 

 that 1 was able to shoot as many of one sex as of the other. 



Some writers who have not succeeded in overcoming their pre-Darwinian 

 prejudices against the interbreeding of allied forms have endeavoured to 

 show that the interbreeding of the Carrion and the Hoodie Crows is an 

 exceptional case — an instance of so-called " dimorphism,-" and that the 

 offspring of these " mixed marriages ■" partake of the peculiarities of either 

 one or other of their parents or revert back to them before they become 

 fully adult. So far as I have been able to discover, the evidence in favour 

 of this view rests upon the unsupported testimony of gamekeepers and 

 shepherds, than which no evidence could be more unreliable. I have no doubt 

 that the comparative rarity of intermediate forms between these two sub- 

 species is caused entirely by their comparative bai'renness. The two 

 Crows are probably more differentiated than the two European Nuthatches 

 or the two Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, or than some of the nearly allied 

 Tits; but the difference between them can only be considered of subspecific 

 value, and the full name and title of the Hooded Crow is Corvus corone, 

 var. comix, though, as in other similar cases, the binomial name will 

 generally be used for the sake of brevity. 



The thoroughbred Hooded Crow has the wings, tail, head, throat 

 (extending as far as the upper part of the breast), and thighs black. The 

 rest of the body is ashy grey, slightly darker on the under tail- coverts. 

 The upper tail-coverts begin grey, gradually become darker in the centre, 

 until they are only edged with grey, and iinally become black as they join 

 the tail. Legs, feet, and claws black ; irides dark brown, The female 

 resembles the male in colour, but is slightly smaller in size. The nestling 

 plumage does not differ from that of the adult except in being much 

 duller. 



^^ 





