232 
CROWS AND ROOKS. 
living prey they will also attempt to carry off, to be 
devoured at leisure. A person walking near a plan- 
tation, heard a shrill cry, and running in to find out 
the cause, discovered a Crow fastening itself on a 
young rabbit, weighing from half to three quarters 
of a pound, which was making great efforts to release 
itself, but in vain ; for the Crow actually caught it 
up and bore it away across two or three fields. 
Such is their favourite food, but when pressed by 
hunger, they will also feed on potatoes, barley, or in 
short whatever comes within their reach. 
The Rook, on the other hand, is a social bird, 
passing its days with those relations and friends, 
amongst whom it was born and bred, and for its food 
preferring a vegetable diet, or such insects as it can 
collect under the sod of the meadow, or pick up in 
its progress over a fallow or fresh-ploughed field. 
There is one intermediate link seen in parts of 
England between the Carrion Crow and the Rook, 
namely, the Hooded-gray or Royston Crow. They are 
clever birds, and when frequenting the sea-shore, in 
search of shell-fish, may be frequently seen, after 
vain attempts to break through the hard shell of a 
cockle, or muscle, to seize it in their bill, mount 
'with it to a great height, and then let it fall on a 
hard rock, by which it is broken, and the bird has 
nothing more to do than to reap the fruits of its 
forethought. 
It is said that this species of Crow will pair with 
the common Crow, a proof how nearly allied the 
two species are, as it seems almost an established 
law of nature, one at least rarely infringed, that 
neither animals nor birds, essentially differing, how- 
