eges: partridges, plovers, snipes, redshanks, wood-pigeons, ducks, and teal, all seemed to have con-
tributed to support these ravenous birds.” 7

‘*On comparing specimens of the Hooded and Carrion Crows,” coaaae Macgillivray, ‘I cannot discover
any difference in the form of the parts or in the texture and outlines of the feathers by which they can be
distinguished ; nor is there any decided difference in their size. Yet I am persuaded that the two species are
perfectly distinct ; for we have large tracts of country (the whole range of ine Outer Hebrides, 1 example)
inhabited by the Hooded Crow, without an individual of the other species to be seen; and a oe
inhabited by both they always keep separate, the Carrion-Crow being nione Ovenae much wilder bird
than the other. It is alleged by some writers that these two species sometimes breed together,
producing hybrids having characters intermediate between the two. How such hybrids could be
recognized, I am unable to conjecture; for the mere extent and tint of the grey-coloured space varies
greatly in the Hooded Crow.

‘‘ According to authors, this species occurs in all parts of Europe, remaining stationary in the eastern
and mountainous districts, but appearing only in September and October in the western countries.
In the whole of Scotland it is stationary all the year, although many individuals may probably migrate

2?

southward
Mr. Tristram, in his notes “On the Ornithology of Palestine,” says :—‘‘In December we met with

the Hooded Crow (C. corniv) at Jenin (Engannim), a day’s journey south of Nazareth; and neither
in winter nor summer did we find it further north. There is not the slighest difference in size or
plumage between Palestine and British specimens, except that the former are clearer and brighter
in coloration. It is curious that this bird, merely a winter visitant to all except the more northerly
portion of the British Isles, should be sedentary, not only in Southern Syria, but also in Egypt, and
that in the north of Palestine it should be, if present at all, at any rate very scarce. There were a
few pairs at Jenin, which roosted among the palm trees, where we obtained them as they were returning
home in the evening. In the district about Nablous they were scarce, but more numerous at Jerusalem,
living there in society with Ravens and Rooks, but not nearly so abundant as the other Corvide. We
never saw them in the southern wilderness, or in the neighbourhood of the Dead Sea; but on crossing
to the other side of the Jordan, the C. corniv was widely distributed over the highlands and open
plains of Moab and in the southern and eastern portions of Gilead, not loving the thick forests,
but resorting chiefly to the open plains, where a few terebinth trees occasionally varied the landscape.
In these regions we found it breeding, on isolated trees, on rocks, and in old ruins; and here
we found the Great Spotted Cuckoo (Oxylophus glandarius) depositing its eggs in its nest, and
obtained several. It. was interesting to meet, among the ruins of Rabbath Ammon, with this corrobo-
ration of Messrs. Brehm, Cochrane, and Allen’s observations in Egypt, where they frequently obtained
the eggs of O. glandarius, but exclusively in the nests of C. cornix. In Spain, on the contrary, Lord
Lilford took them from the nests of Pica caudata; and our Algerian specimens were invariably in the
nests of P. mauritanica.”

Lord Lilford tells us that the Hooded Crow is an occasional winter visitant to Epirus, where he
saw it near Previsa in March 1857, that it is common on the coasts of Albania in December, abundant
in Montenegro in August, and apparently quite unknown in Corfu—frequent in the island of Sardinia,
where he was assured it breeds among the reeds which fringe the “stagni,” or large salt-water lagoons
in the neighbourhood of Cagliari, and that it is rarely met with in Northern Spain; and Mr. Howard
Saunders tells me it is equally scarce in the southern part of the latter country, but is very abundant
on the campagna of Rome in winter.

The Hooded Crow is an early breeder, and makes its nest upon trees in those countries where
trees are found, and, in their absence, on marine rocks and cliffs. The nest is composed of. sticks
and straw, lined with wool and hair. The eggs are from four to six in number, of a light green,
mottled all over with greenish brown ; they are nearly two inches in length by one inch and a quarter
in breadth.

Like the rest of the true Crows, the sexes are outwardly alike; but the female is somewhat smaller and
less strongly marked than the male, and the young soon attain the livery of the adults.

The figure is of the natural size, with a nest and eggs of the Grouse (Lagopus scoticus ).