112 
TJie Scottish Naturalist. 
but there, as in Roxburghshire and the other adjoining counties, 
it has been exterminated. 
Magpie {Pica rustica). Decreasing throughout the district 
Vv'here it was formerly common. It still occasionally breeds with us. 
Jackdaw {Corvus ^noneduld). Common, and perhaps more 
so nearer the hills, where it nests in rabbit holes on the lower 
slopes. An entirely grey specimen was once captured at Faldon- 
side, near Melrose. 
Carrion Crow {Corvus corone). The Cheviots afford an abund- 
ance of quiet and suitable nesting-sites, so that it is not wonderful 
that the number of crows to be found there is very great. I have 
never seen so many at any other place in Britain. In the low 
country they are of course kept down by the keepers, and, there- 
fore, only breed sporadically. 
Hooded Crow {Corvus comix). Mr. George Bolam of Ber- 
wick-on-Tweed records {Hist. Bet. Nat. Club, viii., p. 495) 
an instance of one of these birds interbreeding with a Carrion Crow 
at Skirlnaked near Wooler on the English side of Cheviot ; and in 
the more immediate neighbourhood Mr. A. Kelly has noted a 
similar case at Lauder. On Mr. Bolam's authority we also hear 
that from 1876 to 1882^ or possibly longer, hybrids between this 
bird and the Carrion Crow were bred on the cliffs north of 
Berwick-on-Tweed, while even in 1834 the same thing happened 
at Fowberry near Wooler. 
Rook {Corvus frugikgus). Abundant. As Mr. J. Smail, of 
Galashiels, has published an exhaustive list of the Border rookeries 
in Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, x., pp. 159-184, I may refer to that 
periodical readers interested in the subject of the distribution and 
habits. 
Raven {Corvus corax). One pair still breeds on the Cheviots, 
and occasionally a second nest has been found at a different 
station on that range, where I have seen the nest on most inacces- 
sible rock-faces more than once. About 1 830 a pair frequented 
Ruberslaw, and at West Hope, near Lauder, the bird is reported to 
have been then common, though now unknown. 
Sky Lark {Alauda arvensis). Abundant throughout the dis- 
trict, but said to be decreasing near Jedburgh in 1870. 
Wood Lark {Alauda arborca). Never noticed near Melrose. 
Sell)y gives it as an occasional visitant at Twizell in Northumber- 
land. \Hist. Ber. Nat. Club, i., p. 258.] 
