122 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
years ago), should still be the opinion of some ornithologists 
who do not consider the Carrion-Crow as specifically distinct 
from the Hooded Crow ; others, however, take exactly the 
opposite view. 
THE HOODED CROW. Corvus cornix, Linnseus. 
Local names-GEEY Ceow ; Geey-backed Ceow ; Sea- 
Ceow ; Hoodie Ceaw ; Hoodie. 
Crow. 
In his manuscript written about 1837 William Laidlaw 
savs • " In former times the Gray, Royston or Hooded 
Crow has as I think been the more common species even m 
the Border counties of Scotland where it is now^ almost 
unknown, for the Carrion crow is called everywhere the 
Hoodie craw; it seems to have gradually bamshed the 
other, which although almost as subtle and cautious has 
Somewhat more oil wild character. These two nearly 
connected species do not at all times decline to associate, 
or I have twice seen them paired in Selkirkshire, but never 
a pair of Grey Hooded Crows together I am inclined 
to suppose that the emigration of the Grey sort took place 
Ingst with the destruction of the woods from the demand 
of charcoal in the early part of the seventeenth century^ 
Whether this supposition is correct I do not know, but by 
the end of the eighteenth century, it would appear to 
"as:d to be I general resident. Sir WiUiam Jar^ne 
writing in 1839 says : " An individual oecasionally strays 
inland and in spring finds a mate m /^e Carrion Crow^ 
We have repeatedly seen them breedmg together and could 
only account for it in this way, one or two mdividuals 
only occurring in the district alluded to durmg the wmter. 
