Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia. 329 
hybrids of every stage; mulattoes, quadroons^ octoroons, and^ 
so on ad infinitum. The line of demarcation between the 
two species may be roughly taken at the meridian of Calcutta, 
extending north of Yen-e-saisk' along the valley of the Yen- 
e-say', and south of that town along the watershed of the 
Obb and the Yen-e-say'. That this state of things is not of 
recent origin is proved by the fact that it is recorded by 
MiddendorflP, who remarked the presence of hybrid Crows at 
Yen-e-saisk' as long ago as 1844. Hybrids between C. cor one 
and C. cornix occur occasionally in Scotland, on the Elbe, in 
Turkestan, and probably wherever both species occur. The 
fact that these hybrids present a series of every intermediate 
form between the two species is primd facie evidence of their 
fertility. I succeeded, however, in positive evidence of 
this fact. On the 11th May, whilst the ground was still covered 
with six feet of snow, I found a pair of hybrid Crows in pos¬ 
session of a nest near the top of a pine tree. The nest con¬ 
tained one egg. On the 21st I climbed up to the nest again, 
and found it to contain five eggs. Two of these I took. On 
the 31st one egg was hatched, and the other two were chipped 
ready for hatching. On the 26th June I again climbed up 
to the nest, and found that one of the young birds had either 
died or flown. I took the other two and shot the female. 
She proved to be at least three parts Carrion-Crow. The 
feathers on the sides of the neck, and on the lower part of 
the breast and belly, are grey, with dark centres. I was 
unable to shoot the male; but I had on various occasions 
examined him through my binocular. He had more Hoodie 
blood in him than the female, having a very grey ring round 
the neck, and showing a good deal of grey on the breast and 
under the wings. 
My total bag of Crows at the Ku-ray'-i-ka was three 
thoroughbred Hoodies (two males and a female), ten thorough¬ 
bred Carrions (nine males and one female), and fifteen hy¬ 
brids (seven males and eight females). These figures, as far 
as they go, lead me to the conclusion that the female Carrion- 
Crows were all breeding, away in the woods, so that I rarely 
got a shot at one, whereas the female hybrids were most of 
