Too often, however, their labours are in vain and man steps in and destroys the nest; but ever faithful to the old home, many pairs continue ineffectually to breed year after year near the same spot, till at last in their old age they succumb to some winter’s storm and the spot is the poorer by the loss of one of our noblest birds.
After the young are fledged they remain with their parents for some months, till they are eventually driven out to make way for the new brood of the following year.
The adult is of a deep, glossy, blue black. The female and young only differ from the male in having less lustre on their plumage. Length 25 in.; wing 17 in.
THE CARRION CROW
Corvus corone, Linnæus
With every man’s hand against it, the Carrion Crow, which as a scavenger might well be one of our most useful birds, leads a harassed existence. Singly or in pairs it wanders about the country, feeding on anything that comes in its way. Carrion is its chief delight, but in default of that it turns its attention to weak and sickly birds, mice, rats, etc., and, as is the case with other members of the Crow family, it does quite as much good by destroying vermin as it does harm by destroying eggs and young birds.
The nest is generally placed on the top of some high tree or on the ledge of a cliff. It is made of sticks with an inner foundation of mud and warmly lined with wool, bents, rabbit fleck, and hair. The eggs, three to five in number, are very variable in markings, but except in size resemble those of the Raven. For a short time after the young are fledged they wander about in family parties, but they soon separate, and after August more than a pair are seldom seen together, a fact which will help to distinguish it at a distance from the Rook, who is nearly always gregarious. In general appearance this bird is very like the Rook, but it may be distinguished by the following characters. The bill is much stouter and broader and not so long and slender; its colour is black with a greenish gloss and not of a purplish blue, and the feathers have white bases, while those of the Rook are grey; the bristles and feathers at the base of the bill are never worn away as is always the case with Rooks after their second moult. Length 19·5 in.; wing 13 in. In this country it is generally distributed where not too strongly persecuted, becoming commoner in Scotland; but in Ireland it is very rare.
THE HOODED CROW
Corvus cornix, Linnæus
The question as to whether this bird, which interbreeds freely with the Carrion Crow where their ranges overlap, is or is not a good species need not trouble us here. Suffice it to say that in England it occurs numerously as a regular winter immigrant, large numbers crossing the North Sea and arriving on our eastern coasts. Over the rest of our islands its distribution is somewhat capricious. In Wales and the western counties it is rare, whereas in Ireland and Scotland it is well distributed and resident.
In habits it resembles the Carrion Crow but is more found on the sea-shore and estuaries than that species, though it is also found in the wooded districts. The back, shoulder, breast, and under parts are ashy grey, the rest of the body being black as in the Carrion Crow, of which in size and all other respects it is the exact counterpart.