AXI) NEIGHBOURHOOD. 219 



remaining till the beginning of April. It is never, I 

 think, so abundant in the valley of the Nen as in 

 that of the Welland, but with us its numbers are 

 subject to great variation, and do not seem to depend 

 upon the weather, as I have seen as many during a 

 mild November as in severe frosts. The Grey or 

 Hooded Crow, during its stay with us, roams the 

 country in pairs or small parties, always preferring 

 our large open fields and meadows to more closely 

 enclosed localities. In the eastern counties this 

 species is very abundant during the winter. A great 

 number are shot, and I believe eaten, on their arrival 

 at Hunstanton and other places on the Norfolk coast, 

 and I have often observed, when shooting in the 

 western parts of that county, how these birds will 

 hang about on the flanks or rear of a shooting-party, 

 and at once commence operations on any game 

 which, falling at a distance, is not immediately 

 retrieved ; but their most flagrant offences against 

 the game-laws are committed in Scotland and the 

 west of Ireland, where they breed abundantly, and 

 lay almost every other species of breeding-bird under 

 contribution. In a certain rocky glen in Inverness- 

 shire, w4th which I was well acquainted, a pair of 

 Grey Crows had their nest in a Scotch flr, and we 

 found a small plateau immediately opposite to the 

 said nest literally strewn with eggs sucked by these 

 marauders ; besides those of Blackgame, Grouse, 

 Ptarmigan, Wild Duck, Teal, Snipe, Curlew, and 

 Golden Plover, which they might find in some abund- 

 ance at a comparatively short distance, we discovered 

 fragments of the eggs of Song-Thrush, Wood-Pigeon, 

 Land-Rail, Waterhen, and Grey Partridge, none of 

 which birds breed within several miles of the nest to 



