cornix as u wanting the grey,” while several Scottish
observers on the other hand have considered grey feathers
to he an unfailing characteristic of the hen.*
In Ireland the Grey Crow is common and resident, according
to Thompson, in all quarters of the island, though in
some parts its numbers seem to decrease in winter; hut the
Black form is comparatively rare, and on that account
probably escaped the notice of the earlier writers who mentioned
Irish birds—such as Payne, in 1589, and Moryson,
in 1617, who deny its occurrence there,—Charles Smith, in
1750, being apparently the first to include it among those of
the County Cork. It was known to Thompson as appearing
in the qorth, east and wrest, as well as in Kilkenny and
Tipperary, hut details of its distribution are wholly wanting.
Nor is evidence forthcoming of its breeding there, unless
paired with the Grey Crow, of which there is a single case
recorded in Antrim. Mr. Watters says that he had never
met with the Black form in the eastern counties, and that
the only examples he had ever seen were two, obtained in
Clare in the summer of 1846, though he had heard of its
occasional occurrence near Belfast, where indeed Thompson
had already noticed it. Lord Clermont informs the Editor
that one was trapped in May 1851 at Ravensdale Park—the
sole instance to his knowledge of its appearance in that
neighbourhood. All this testimony, taken with the silence
of other observers, shews that the Black Crow is but an
accidental visitor to Ireland.
Northward of the British Islands the Grey Crow is a
common resident in the Faeroes, and occasionally strays to
Iceland, where also the Black Crow has been reported, but
very doubtfully, though it perhaps sometimes reaches the
Faeroes. The latter is a rare visitant to Norway, and still
* This divergence of opinion is probably due to the fact of the particular
observer relying on insufficient evidence. Having once perhaps ascertained the
sex of the grey or black partner of a pair, he imagines that all other cases must
be similar ; not knowing that a Black hen may mate with a Grey cock and
vice versd. Any doubt on the subject should be dispelled by St. John’s statement
(op. cit.) that he had killed Crows “ in every shade of plumage from pure black to
the perfectly marked ” Hooded Crow, “ and this without reference to age or sex.”
more seldom to Sweden—in both kingdoms having only
appeared in the south, while its occurrence in Finland is
extremely dubious. On the other hand the Grey Crow is
abundant in nearly every part of all three countries, and
throughout the Russian- dominions eastward to about the
distance of two hundred versts from Krasnoiarsk. But the
Black Crow also appears in certain districts of European
Russia, extending from Archangel to the Black Sea, though
not further in Western Siberia, according to Dr. Radde,
than the eastern slopes of the Ural, until some two hundred
versts beyond Tomsk, where curiously enough it reappears,
at first in small numbers compared with the Grey Crow,
but that decreases until, at about the same distance from the
Jennisei, the Black Crow alone is found. The intermediate
space, says Mr. Seebohm (Ibis, 1878, pp. 328, 829), is held
in common by both forms in about equal proportions, but the
number of mongrels between them is computed to be double
that of either pure Black or pure Grey birds. Northwards
the range of each form is about conterminous with the
growth of the forests. Eastwards the Black Crow seems to . Odwell in the land continuously to the sea of Ochotsk and
southwards in Mongolia. It also inhabits Japan. In
Turkestan and thence to the Caucasus both forms appear,
but then again C. corone has alone been found in Cashmere,
while from Affghanistan to Asia Minor C. cornix seems only
to occur. The latter also inhabits Syria and the south of
Palestine* though it seems to be local in its distribution, but
it is a well-known bird of Egypt and even appears in Nubia.
In Algeria Loche says that the Black Crow commonly
frequents the woodlands, while the Grey only appears occasionally,
but he has possibly mistaken the small Raven
(C. tingitanus) for the first, which is nevertheless recorded
from Eastern Morocco, Madeira and the Cape Verd Islands.
Major von Homeyer found its nest in Majorca (Journ. f. Orn.
1862, p. 252) and it is resident in Spain, breeding, though
rarely, near Gibraltar; but the Grey Crow is of still rarer
occurrence in the south of that country if indeed it appears
there at all. In the south of France this last is also rare,