. The popular natural history . Zoology. 33° THE it to call to its assistance the aid of one or more of its fellows, before it can successfully cope with the larger creatures. Rabbits and hares are frequently the prey of this bird, which pounces on them as they steal abroad to feed, and while they are young is able to kill and carry them off without difficulty. The Crow also eats reptiles of various sorts, frogs and lizards being common dainties, and is a confirmed plunderer of other birds' nests, even carrying away the eggs of game and poultry by the simple device of driving the beak
. The popular natural history . Zoology. 33° THE it to call to its assistance the aid of one or more of its fellows, before it can successfully cope with the larger creatures. Rabbits and hares are frequently the prey of this bird, which pounces on them as they steal abroad to feed, and while they are young is able to kill and carry them off without difficulty. The Crow also eats reptiles of various sorts, frogs and lizards being common dainties, and is a confirmed plunderer of other birds' nests, even carrying away the eggs of game and poultry by the simple device of driving the beak througti ihem ana liymg away with them when thus impaled. Even the large egg of the duck has thus been stolen by the Crow. Sometimes it goes to feed on the sea- shore, and there finds plenty of food among the crabs, shrimps, and shells that are found near low â water mark, and ingeni- ously cracks the CROW. â(Corvus Corone.) harder shelled crea- tures by flying with them to a great height and letting them fall upon a convenient rock. The nest of the Crow is invariably placed in some tree remote from the habitations of other birds, and is a structure of considerable dimensions, and very conspicuous at a distance. It is always fixed on one of the topmost branches, so that to obtain the eggs safely requires a steady head, a practised foot, and a ready hand. The materials of which the Crow's nest is made are very various, but always consist of a foundation of sticks, upon which the softer substances are laid. The interior of the nest is made of grasses, fibrous roots, the hair of cows and horses, which the Crow mostly obtains from trees and posts where the cattle are in. the habit of rubbing themselves, mosses,' and wool. The colour of the Crow is a uniform blue-black, like that of the raven, but varie- ties are known in which the feathers have been pied or i even cream-white. The most familiar of all the British Corvidae is the common ROOK, a bird which has attached itself to
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1884
