222 
CORVIDS. 
i: VS ESS ORES. 
CONIROSTRES. 
CORVIDJi. 
CARRION CROW. 
CORBIE CROW, BLACK NEB. 
CORVUS CORONE. 
PLATE LVIII. FIG. I. 
Some years ago a controversy took place between Mr. 
Waterton and Mr. Rennie, with regard to the habits of 
the Carrion Crow—Mr. Rennie maintaining that the bird 
is in the habit of covering its eggs during absence, and 
Mr. Waterton denying the correctness of the statement. 
Mr. Waterton, as is well known, has spent much of his 
life amongst the feathered tribes, either in this country 
or abroad. When at his own residence, no one, perhaps, 
has so good an opportunity as he has of studying the 
habits of our British birds; for all the most persecuted 
tribes of which, his park is a refuge and a home ; there 
the hawk, the crow, the owl, and the magpie, treated as 
vermin and brutally butchered by the gamekeepers of 
other English gentlemen, are alike unmolested. 
It was always, at school and for many years after I left 
it, a habit with me to look into every bird’s nest within 
my reach, and I have very rarely passed the nests of the 
magpie or the crow without indulging myself with a peep 
at their contents, but I have never seen the eggs of the 
latter covered, as mentioned by Mr. Rennie. 
The Carrion Crow builds its nest in deciduous trees 
