160 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



next letter [30th Jan., 1879], whereas previously they had invariably 

 left for the coast at Dimmore, and for the neighbourhood of towns. 

 Curiously, at this date two variegated plane trees were throwing 

 out shoots. Rooks, though in flocks as usual, have begun to 

 renovate their old nests. But their labours were very short-lived. 

 The male and female are assiduous in protecting each other from 

 their neighbours, though they do not hesitate to steal from one 

 another, as no doubt all who have lived close to a rookery have 

 observed [Journal, 31st Jan., 1879]. On the Farm of Mains of 

 Biffle a Rook found underneath the snow is supposed to have been 

 thus buried for six weeks, as related in the Aberdeen, Free Press as 

 follows : — 



" On Saturday last, while the servants upon the farm of Mains 

 of Biffle were lifting — or rather digging — turnips out of the snow, 

 they came upon a small black hole in the otherwise uniformly 

 snow-covered field. On inspection the hole was found to serve as 

 the ventilator of an apartment in which a Crow was imprisoned. 

 It would seem that this bird, probably about the commencement 

 of the storm, had taken refuge from the snowdrift between two 

 drills of turnips and had been covered. By his ineffectual struggles 

 to free himself, he had formed sufficient space to allow of his 

 moving about, but when the blowing had ceased he must have 

 been more than a foot below the surface of the snow. About the 

 middle of last week, the snow had so far melted that the crust 

 above the feathered prisoner was only a few inches thick, and 

 doubtless the natural heat remaining in poor 'Dick' had completed 

 the hole which was observed by the men. When taken out the 

 Crow seemed more dead than alive, being reduced almost to a 

 skeleton for want of food. A few hours of heat and comfort, 

 however, brought him round. Later in the day he was able to 

 pick at a turnip, and on the day following his release he found his 

 way to a neighbouring wood. This poor bird must have been at 

 least six weeks entombed in the snow." 



Rooks fed freely upon the wagon grease made from palm-oil 

 refuse, and frequented collieries, railway stations, &c, as pointed 

 out by Mr. J. S. Dickson at a former meeting of this Society. 

 Mr. Dickson wrote to me : — " I have observed them force open the 

 grease-box lids of the wagons, when they were so stiff that I had 

 difficulty in doing so with my fingers. If they get the least crack 

 where they can insert their beaks, by repeated wedging they soon 



