124 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
Carrion-Crow, the rest of his feathers jet black. He wasnever, 
we beheve, seen with a mate. His size was not unusual, 
but in his predatory habits he was bold and fierce. At 
one time he killed a bantam hen, and only a few days before 
he was shot he had a tough battle with a bantam cock."* 
In some winters the Hooded Crow appears on our shores 
in greater numbers than in others, as in 1886-1887, 1888- 
1889, and in the severe winter of 1894-1895, when Mr. 
Hugh Mackay records that he had several specimens sent 
to him for preservation from the county.f Inland, however, 
it is more rarely seen, though it has been reported from 
Holywood, Keir, Glencairn, Johnstone, Closeburn, Durisdeer, 
MofEat, Sanquhar and Kirkconnel. 
A report that a pair nested at Mitchellslacks (Closeburn) 
in May, 1903, lacks confirmation ; and it must be re- 
membered that the name " Hoodie Craw " is so generaUy 
applied throughout the county to the Carrion-Crow, as 
to lead to confusion. The places nearest to Dumfriesshire, 
in which C. comix breeds regularly inter se, appear to be 
in the Isle of Man and the Loch Lomond district, although 
a few pairs may nest in some of the Clyde Isles, e.g., Little 
Cumbrae and Inchmarnock. Farther north in Scotland it 
still continues in places to be a more common species 
than C. corone, but it is beheved that the latter is 
gradually dispossessing it of its former strongholds. 
THE ROOK. Corvus frugilegus, Linnaeus. 
Local names— CoRNCROW ; Crow. 
A very common resident throughout the county. 
Mr. Fred. V. Theobald says: "That the Rooks do an 
enormous amount of good there is no doubt, at the same 
* Dumfries Courier, May 24th, 1853. 
t Dumfries Courier and Herald, February 16th, 1895. 
