152 



BIRDS. 



Chough and Daw were interchangeable names in Scotland ; indeed, 

 we have seen that Chough was never a really Scottish word. 



Corvus corone, L. Carrion-Crow. 



Corvus cornix. L. Hooded Crow. 



The former is resident. Common. Assertive, and spreading northwards. 

 Breeds often as one species and cannot really be separated except as 

 mere forms in colour, as all sorts of intermediate patterns are found 

 in their plumages, though this is not perhaps so noticeable in this 

 country as in Xorthern Europe and eastwards. 



Hepburn states that the Carrion-Crow was never observed by him 

 in the Highlands until he crossed the Grampians, coming south from 

 the valley of the Spey, and until he reached Blair Atholl ; but that the 

 other form, or Hooded Crow, was everywhere widely distributed over 

 field and moor to the north of the range {ZooL, " On Birds and 

 Quadrupeds in the Northern Districts of Scotland," 1847, pp. 2010-44). 



Just according to the amount of vigoui' with which these birds 

 are trapped and killed down do they appear more or less abundant 

 in different localities, but it seems almost impossible to reduce their 

 numbers permanently, as fresh hordes come across seas by an annual 

 and immense migration to take the place of those destroyed. 



They appear to be somewhat scarcer in the south-west about 

 Glen Ogle, as observed by Mr. Godfrey, but the " Hoodie " is com- 

 moner than the Carrion. The " Hoodie " appears to be the commoner 

 on the Moor of Eannoch. 



At the present time Dr. Dewar reckons the "Hoodie" the 

 commoner also in the east of Forfar. 



In the Howe of Fife Col. H. AV. Feilden remembers clearly hoth 

 forms pairing together and nesting in the Mount Woods, Eankeillor, 

 in 1853. The keeper shot the birds and gave the eggs to me." 



All the old Statistkal A'rount notices, at least in the north, may 

 be taken as referring to the northern or Hooded form, with trifling 

 exceptions. 



The name "Huddie" was applied locally to both forms in the 

 Carse of Gowrie, but not so frequently to the Carrion-Crow, as that 

 form was not the more abundant of the two in older times. Inter- 

 mediate forms were often met with by Col, Drummond Hay there, 

 "as long as he remembers." 



It was as long ago as 1843 that Yarrell pointed out the facts as 

 to their pairing and breeding together (op. cit., 1st edition, p. 86), 



