ORNITHOLOGY OF OXFORDSHIRE. 417 



the nest was perched on the top where the growth bushed out. 

 I do not think any boy, much less a man, could have got at this 

 nest. Crows also build in evergreen conifers (scarce here), or 

 " piney " trees, as they are called locally, near the top and close 

 to the trunk ; and I once saw one about twenty-five feet from the 

 ground in the central pole (about five inches in diameter at the 

 base) of a pollard willow, the poles of which had not been 

 lopped ; the nest was fixed in the small branchlets. Ash and 

 big old alder trees also are used, of course, but the nest, save in 

 the cases I have especially alluded to (and those in conifers), are 

 almost always conspicuous at a distance. As this destructive 

 bird is too common in this parish, I employed a boy who is a 

 very good climber (and he who would take Crow's eggs here has 

 to be a good one) to harry the nests. In the twelve days (17th to 

 28th) he raided fourteen nests containing fifty-five eggs. Four 

 is the usual clutch about here, but five is not at all uncommon ; 

 the Crow will sit on three, but I have never known six.* The 

 eggs in the clutch usually resemble one another in character, 

 but one is almost always slightly lighter coloured than the rest, 

 and in some cases (more especially when five are to be laid) one 

 egg is quite different, and usually lighter coloured than the 

 others. This odd egg has often a clear greenish blue ground 

 colour, spotted with distinct and sharply defined marks, some 

 very dark. There are, of course, many exceptions, greater and 

 less, but on the whole I think this is a fair description of the 

 Crow's eggs found here. I have a clutch of four, all of which 

 differ from one another considerably. The normal variation in 

 size, shape, and colour is very great, and I have some curious 

 eggs, and even clutches, which can only be considered ab- 

 normal. A large Crow's egg weighs over f oz. ; a small, slender 

 one over \ oz. 



15th. — Young Mistle-Thrushes flew. 



(To be continued.) 



* Mr. E. W. Calvert, however, tells me that some years ago he has more 

 than once found six Crow's eggs in a nest in the range of woodlands near 

 Burford known as Widley Copse, Hens Grove, and Stockley Copse (formerly 

 part of Wych wood Forest), at that period not yet given over to Pheasants, 

 and a great resort of Crows, Hawks, Owls, and Foxes. 



Zool. -it'ii net, vol. IX., November, 1905. 2 K 



