Class II. RED LEGGED CROW. 295 



sects, and also on new sown corn : commonly 

 flies high, makes a shriller noise than the jack- 

 daw, and may be taught to speak. It is a very 

 tender bird, and unable to bear very severe wea- 

 ther ; is of an elegant, slender make ; active, 

 restless, and thieving ; much taken with glitter, 

 and so meddling as not to be trusted where 

 things of consequence lie. It is very apt to 

 catch up bits of lighted sticks, so that there 

 are instances of houses being set on fire by its 

 means ; which is the reason that Camden calls 

 it incendiaria avis. Several of the Welsh and 

 Cornish families bear this bird in their coat of 

 arms. It is found in Cornwall, Flintshire, 

 Caernarvonshire, and Anglesey, in the cliffs 

 and castles along the shores ; in different parts 

 of Scotland as far as Straithnavern ; and in 

 some of the Hebrides. It is also found in small 

 numbers on Dover cliff, where they came by 

 accident ; a gentleman in that neighborhood had 

 a pair sent as a present from Cornwall, which 

 escaped, and stocked those rocks. They some- 

 times desert the place for a week or ten days at 

 a time, and repeat it several times in the year.* 



Its weight is thirteen ounces : the breadth Descrip- 



TION. 



* It is also said to frequent the South Downs about Beachy 

 Head and Eastbourne, where it is called the Red-billed Jack- 

 daw. J. L. 



