converse position be true or not. Now that hybrids of the
Black and Grey Crows are fertile has been proved by several
observers, and Mr. Seebohm has furnished (loc. cit.) additional
evidence of the fact. But he has at the same time
come to the conclusion that though this is the case in some
instances it is not always so, and he bases his opinion on the
circumstance that at one place in that part of Siberia which
is tenanted in common by both forms he, in the breeding-
season, shot all the Crows he could—thirteen of them being
“ thoroughbred” and fifteen hybrids. Of the latter seven
were males and eight females, but the proportion of the sexes
in the former was very different, being eleven males and two
females. Hence he naturally supposes that most of the
“ thoroughbred” females were engaged in incubation and
out of his reach, while the majority of hybrids were not, and
for the reason that they were barren. Whether this reason
be valid must be left to future determination, but if the
tendency to infertility, which Mr. Seebohm believes himself
to have observed, be finally established it must be allowed to
have due weight upon this very curious question*.
Like the Baven, our Crows seem to pair for life, and,
though some few pass the winter in or near their breeding-
haunts, whither their presence may attract chance strangers
of their kind, the greater number, including all the young
birds, collect in flocks towards the end of summer in places
where food is most abundant, and keeping more or less
together gradually make their way southward until the turn
of the season, when they retrace their flight in like manner.
Gregarious as they thus are during the greater part of the
year, they appear to associate less from the love of company
than from the opportunities thereby afforded of performing
their migrations in safety, or of getting their living with
facility. In the breeding-season the flocks separate, and
* Some doubt however may be expressed as to whether all the birds deemed by
Mr. Seebohm to be “ thoroughbred,” were really so, for it seems that hybrids
of the two forms, as often as not, wholly resemble either one parent or the other,
while an entirely Black bird has been seen in a brood of which both the parents
were Grey (Verhandl. zool.-bot. Ver. Wien, 1854, p. 619).
each pair of birds takes up a particular beat. This fact has
led many English observers to think that the Black form—
being as before remarked chiefly a summer-visitant to these
islands, and consequently most usually seen in pairs or,
after the young are flown, in small family-parties—was less
sociable in its habits than the Grey, which being better
known in this kingdom as a winter-guest, appears of course
at that season most often in bands.* The comparative
scarcity too of the Black form has encouraged this belief,
for from its continued destruction by shepherds and game-
keepers throughout most parts of England, it is almost
impossible for a sufficient number to be nowadays bred in
this country to admit of the collection of any considerable
flocks.f In the wilder and less frequented districts of Scotland
and Ireland, the Grey Crow enjoys greater immunity, though
there are in each wide tracts of country where it has been
almost entirely extirpated, chiefly by the use of poison ; but
by far the larger portion of the birds of this form which are
seen with us in winter are unquestionably of foreign origin, j
reaching this country about October.
Crows are not very early breeders, and it is generally the
end of April or the beginning of May before the nest is
prepared. This, as has been already said, is variously
placed in trees, rocks, or on the ground, but one that has
been used before is very commonly refurnished, and a
favourite site is often tenanted for a long series of seasons,
* The precise range of the Grey Crow in England has yet to he determined
and well deserves attention. Mr. Knox says that though it is numerous in
winter to the eastward of Shoreham, he never detected it on the Sussex coast to
the west of Bognor. The Editor can state that it does not visit a district
within sight,, and not twenty miles to the westward, of the Royston Downs,
whence it takes one of its commonest names.
T Yet in the strictly-preserved county of Norfolk, Mr. Norgate informs the
Editor that he has known more than a dozen Crows’ nests, the sites of which
were visible from one single spot. I t is, however, almost useless to remark that
nearly all of them would be also known to the neighbouring gamekeepers, and
that no increase of the species, but the contrary, would be the result.
i So well is this known along the eastern coast of England, where the birds
may be seen arriving from over sea in autumn, that they are called Danish
Crows. At the same season Black Crows, but in far smaller numbers, also
appear on the coast and some of them seem to winter with us.