DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE CARRION-CROW. 325 
could tell. At 2.20 I returned, when I thought I saw it there, 
but was unable to say. 
April 21st.—At place at 7.25 a.m., and watched the nest till 
8.35 a.m., when the bird flew off it, in silence—there had been 
no previous visit from the partner bird. At about five minutes 
to 9 a Crow—one of the pair, as I assume—perched on a low tree 
in the neighbourhood, then flew off it, and a little later the two 
were flying about in each other’s company. At 9.30 one of 
them flew into a tree belonging to the row in which the home one 
is situated, being the eighth away from it (there being but a step 
or two between each), then into another of them, nearer, and I 
thought she would go to her nest, thus by easy stages. But 
she flew off again, and soon I saw the pair flying about, and 
expatiating, as it were, together, as before. Some minutes later 
she, or one of the birds, flew into the same tree, then off again, 
and at 9.30 I saw her sitting on a low, lopped tree-stump, from 
which she, in a moment, flew to the ground. At 9.551, all at 
once, saw a hawk—a Kestrel—glide from the nest, on the further 
rim of which he must, I think, have been settled. At 10 the 
Crow was flying about over the ground, and then a little higher, 
as though feeding from place to place. The boy now appeared 
on the scene, with his cows, and cracking his whip at short 
intervals (yet withal I noted that he had a paper and was reading 
it), and, thinking that the bird would not return to the nest 
whilst he was there, I rose and began to walk away. In this, 
however, I was mistaken, for I had only gone a few yards when 
I saw her in the same tree as before, or a neighbouring one, 
and standing still, where I had a good view of the nest, in a few 
minutes—just at 10.7—she flew on to it and disappeared, 
having thus been absent from the nest over an hour and a half. 
+ is curious how the bird’s going down on the nest almost 
exactly coincided—just after, not before—with the arrival of the 
boy and the cracking of his whip, Can she have adopted this 
as a signal?—but this hypothesis did not continue to recom- 
mend itself. 
April 22nd.—Getting to the place at 9.85 this morning, I 
watched the nest for a full three hours, during which time no 
bird either came to or left it. All the while, however, the Crow 
kept about in the neighbourhood, feeding, for the most part, 
