British Birds, Vol. 2 of 4

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Excerpt from British Birds, Vol. 2 of 4: With Eighty Plates in Colour, Showing Over Four Hundred SpeciesAccording to the new List of British Birds published by The British Ornithologists' Union (zud ed. The latest and most authoritative work on the subject, to which I am indebted for much information, the typical form of the carrion-crow breeds commonly in western Europe as far east as the Elbe, in Switzerland, Bohemia, the highlands of Austria and upper Italy. It occurs occasionally in other parts of Europe. Its range extends eastwards to western Siberia, where Seebohm found it interbreeding with the Hooded Crow.Breeding later in the year than the Rook or Raven, the carrion-crow has its nest completed by the end of April, either building a new one or returning to its home of former years. This is usually placed in a tree or on some ledge of rock, and is built of sticks and warmly lined with moss, wool, feathers, and hair. When the nest has been occupied for several years in succession, it becomes large and bulky owing to the frequent addition of materials. The eggs, varying in number from four to six, have the ground colour of a pale bluish-green, spotted and blotched with umber or olive-brown and shades of purplish-grey.Like the rest Of its family, the carrion-crow will eat almost any food which comes to hand, and devours great numbers of the eggs and young of other birds, sometimes also attacking and killing leverets and even newly-born lambs when it gets the opportunity. It keenly searches the sea-shore for mussels and other shell-fish, of which it is extremely fond, and in order to Open these easily will rise to some height and drop its booty on a stone or rock, thus fracturing the shell. The ordinary cry of the carrion-crow is a harsh grating croak, varying in tone, but not so deep as the Raven's nor so soft as the Rook's.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.