300 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



boug'hs of an ash in a hedge-row, inaccessible except by cutting" 

 with a bill-hook the slender branch on which it rested, and thus 

 lowering nest and eggs in safety. This nest we took on Monday, 

 and by the following Thursday a second nest had been built in a 

 neighbouring ash tree, and to all appearance finished, which cer- 

 tainly would read us a lesson of "Nil desperandum" but rather, 

 when misfortune befalls, to lose no time in doing our best to amend 

 it. I should be very sorry to miss their triple " caw-caw-caw " from 

 the meadows, of which there is little chance, however, as they are 

 not much persecuted, and know pretty well how to take care of 

 themselves. 



Corvus Comix. " The Hooded Crow/'' This bird, once not un- 

 common on our downs and in our water-meadows, would seem for 

 some reason or other to be getting annually scarcer and scarcer in 

 our district. A few years ago there always used to be one or two of 

 these birds in our water-meadows in the winter, but for the last 

 eight or nine years I have not seen one in the parish. King, also, 

 says much the same, telling me that they were common in the 

 Warminster water-meadows some twenty years ago, but that now 

 they have quite deserted them. Champion has noticed them oc- 

 casionally on the downs round Martin, but never in any numbers, 

 I cannot account for their thus deserting us, unless it be that 

 our winters for some years past have been, on the whole, milder 

 than they used to be. They are the most troublesome of all birds 

 to the game-preservers in the north, and do more harm to the Grouse 

 in the nesting season, by running off with the eggs directly the 

 nest is left exposed, than all the Hawks and Peregrines put together. 

 A friend of my brother's, in Scotland, once saw a pair of these birds 

 mobbing a poor unfortunate rabbit on the opposite bank of the 

 stream to that from which he was fishing. Not being able to cross 

 the stream he at last drove them off by shouting and pelting them 

 with stones, but as the rabbit did not move most likely they had 

 already done their work effectually and blinded the poor animal, who 

 therefore was not able to take advantage of the protection thus 

 afforded him. 



Corvus Frugilegus. " The Rook." Too well known to say much 



