4 
British Birds. 
THE 
CARRION-CROW. 
(Corone corone.) 
THE 
HOODED CROW 
(Corone cornix.) 
considerable havoc among the sheep farms, as it attacks wounded or sickly sheep, 
as well as fawns, and, in fact, will eat everything from a rat to a chicken, while it 
also feeds on carrion. 
This is a much smaller bird than the Raven, and has a some- 
what differently shaped wing. In habits it is very like a Raven, 
but is of course not so powerful a bird, and like that species, it is 
generally seen in pairs, though occasionally it is said to assemble in 
flocks. The eggs resemble those of other Crows, all of which have a family likeness. 
The Carrion-Crow is less common in the South of England than it is in Scotland and 
Wales, and it often mates with a Hooded Crow, producing a curious hybrid which 
shows the saddle-back and light-coloured breast of the latter bird, though these pale 
portions of the body are always more or less intermixed with black smudges and spots. 
This Crow, often called the ‘ Royston ’ or ‘ Danish ’ Crow, is 
better known as a migrant than as a resident of Great Britain, 
though the species also breeds with us in certain districts. To the 
eastern counties come numbers of Hooded Crows in the autumn 
from Scandinavia and Russia, when they distribute themselves over the Midlands, 
though the bulk remain near the coasts. In Norway they are by no means uncommon 
in summer, and harry the nests of the Willow-Grouse as they do those of our Red 
Grouse on the northern moors. One which I brought up from the nest in 1896 proved 
to be the most amusing and, at the same time, the most mischievous of pets. His 
affection was at all times embarrassing to its object, and was demonstrated by tweaks, 
pinches, and digs at one’s head, or attempts to bite a piece out of one’s ear. This 
individual was never caged, and would absent himself from home for half the day, 
but he never failed to appear the moment we came back from our day’s fishing, and 
would fly out half-a-mile to welcome us. 
Some ornithologists disagree with the Crows being placed at the head of the 
Perching Birds, and argue that the Thrushes and Warblers should have this place of 
honour, on account of their wonderful development of singing powers. No one 
seems to have credited a Crow with any such a faculty, but my Hooded Crow would 
sit for an hour at a time, croaking forth his melody, which really constituted a by no 
means despicable effort at a song. It was only when he fancied himself quite 
unobserved that he gave vent to his feelings, and he would fly up to his perch in 
a garden house, and thence proceed to utter the most extraordinary succession of 
notes it is possible to imagine. He certainly fancied himself immensely, for he raised 
his crest and puffed out all the feathers of his throat, and was evidently of the opinion 
that the Thrushes and Blackbirds could do nothing equal to his own song. The 
nest and eggs of the Hooded Crow resemble those of the Carrion Crow. 
The Jackdaw is the smallest of the true Crows in Great Britain, 
and differs from them in its nestingplace, which is almost invariably 
in a building or in the hole of a tree. It is also to a certain extent 
THE JACKDAW. 
(Colwus monedulu.) 
