192 C0RV1DE. 



pretty closely upon our flocks during the lambing season ; 

 yet I have not been able to bring any charge of murdering 

 ewes and lambs against them, nor am I aware that our hill 

 shepherds bear them any grudge on this score. No one who 

 has ever marked his noble mien, his courteous bowings to his 

 mate, before making the woods ring out with his joyous 

 cawings, can resist admiring the bird around whose life and 

 conversation prejudice and ignorance have thrown a dark 

 cloud; 1 



In opposition to this peaceful picture we must acknowledge 

 that the Crow is accused on the testimony of persons of 

 undoubted veracity, of destroying sickly sheep and killing 

 and devouring young lambs. " In the lambing season, 11 

 says W. H. of Stobo Hope, in some notes published in the 

 Zoologist, " the Crow is the dread of the shepherd, and 

 commits unheard of cruelties ; at this season its nest is 

 overflowing with young, which require an enormous quantity 

 of food : and many an inoffensive creature is slain to gorge 

 their craving appetite. The symptoms of parturition are as 

 well known to the Crow as to the shepherd, and a group 

 may often be seen waiting with anxious expectation. If the 

 mother escapes, the young lamb frequently becomes a victim 

 before it has yet stood erect. 11 



The Carrion Crow feeds, besides, on worms, insects, fruit, 

 and vegetables, young game, and mice ; but their favourite 

 food is, as their name implies, carrion ; and during cold 

 weather they enter towns and villages on the Continent, 

 where they pick the bones and other remains that they find 

 in the streets. 



About the latter end of February or beginning of March, 

 Carrion Crows enter upon the construction of their nest, in 

 which both male and female take their part. The nest is 

 usually placed in the top branches of a forest tree, where 

 the female deposits four or five eggs. It is constructed 



