THE CROWS. 
13 
^'atures are easily seen when the bird is flying. It is of the 
, ? e Slze and shape as the Carrion Crow, and many ornitho- 
gists deny to it the rank of a species, because it often inter- 
t J“ e . w ith the last-named bird. This seems to us a mis- 
cn idea, as there are many places where the Carrion and 
ooded Crows breed perfectly true, and it is only in certain 
oij lCe ? and c °l° n ' es that the two birds hybridise. We have 
reives come across such mixed colonies in Aberdeenshire, 
jr there are also many places in the United Kingdom where 
Crows pair and rear their young. When hybridism 
pj es Place the young birds partake of the ground-colour of the 
str °f ^jow, but have the grey plumage smudged and 
♦v. e d with black to a greater or less extent. In Siberia 
the 
Hooded 
interbreeding of the Carrion Crow and the eastern form of 
des° "t < - row (C. sharpii) takes place, and has been well 
fact nt)e<a ky Mr. Seebohm, whose specimens illustrative of the 
M„„ are to be seen in the Great Hall of the Natural History 
eu m at South Kensington. 
8 r ant 86 ° reat Brita 'n. — Chiefly known as an autumn emi- 
tribi t W ' ien g reat numbers arrive on the east coast and dis- 
Hon f themselves inland. For a week together flocks of 
have eC Crows are constantly arriving, and in Heligoland we 
bei m? Seen t * lem continually for five days and nights, a flock 
l atlc j constantly in sight, either arriving or departing. In Ire- 
Hoo V^ otland , and some parts of England and Wales, the 
Carri ed r ,^' row breeds regularly, sometimes pairing with a 
°n Crow, as already mentioned. 
oat side the British Islands. — The Hooded Crow has a 
sc a t tp S j dlstribu ti°n, and may almost be said to exist in 
Ptentifi co ^ on i es throughout Europe, being in some districts 
only j U ’ absen t in others ; in some localities a winter visitant 
the Car •° t * lers a resident; in many places interbreeding with 
of t be ‘ rion Crow, as already mentioned. The great stronghold 
large ff' 3 n C ' eS P r °bably European Russia, whence migrate the 
ftianv r?i S ' y h>ch populate Western Europe in winter, but in 
the Ho ^f r P arts °f Central Europe, in Italy, Sicily, and Egypt, 
exact r ° ed *“ row ' s a resident bird, though always local. The 
re Presem^ e,S the H ur °P ea n species and that of its eastern 
ative (C. sharpii) are not yet determined, and we only 
