92 Mr. T. Austin on some Birds of the British Islands. 



XII. — Remaj^ks on the Habits of Birds which are Natives of the 

 British Islands, By Thomas Austin, Esq. 



Rook, Corvus frugilegus. 



In some districts of Ireland the rooks suffer severely during the 

 interval between the sowing of the spring crops and the autumn, 

 a season in which ploughing operations in a great measure cease, 

 so that the supply of larvae &c. no longer affords them subsistence. 

 If the season should also prove dry at the same time, their suffer- 

 ings are still more intense. During this period the famishing 

 birds may be seen in the maritime districts skulking into corners 

 in search of food, or greedily rooting up the grubs which are 

 sometimes found in the heaps of sea- weed which have been col- 

 lected for manure. They also spread themselves along the shores 

 in quest of the small marine insects which lie scattered about, or 

 if severely pressed by hunger, they pick up any stray offal that 

 may fall in their way. 



Sometimes they exercise the same instinct as the gulls and the 

 gray-crows : when they meet with a molluscous animal, and 

 which is not easily removed from its testaceous covering, the 

 rook will then rise in the air until it attains a sufficient altitude 

 for its purpose; it then lets its captive fall to the ground; the 

 shock of striking on the hard siirface is generally sufficient to 

 fracture the shell, or to force the animal in part from its calca- 

 reous citadel, when it becomes an easy prey to the bird. Whilst 

 the shell is falling the bird descends rapidly after it, lest some 

 intrusive beak might bear the expected prize away. 



This instinct is paralleled by the blackbirds and thrushes, 

 who carry the snails they feed upon to some stone suited to the 

 purpose, against which they continue to strike the shell, still 

 retaining it partly in the beak, until it is sufficiently broken to 

 enable the bird to seize on the contents. In plantations and 

 other favourite haunts of these birds, piles of snail-shells so 

 broken may always be seen along side-stones selected for the 

 crushing process. 



The strange fancies the rooks sometimes indulge in when 

 founding a new colony afford amusing instances of what to a 

 mere spectator would appear whimsicalities, but which no doubt 

 the birds have good and sufficient reasons for observing. 



In the spring of 1840, a number of rooks commenced build- 

 ing their nests in the low trees which ornament the approach 

 to Mr. Allen's house at Ballystraw, near Duncannon, county of 

 Wexford. After the labours of the day were over they would 

 assemble in the trees, and apparently take up their station for 

 the night ; but no sooner did the twilight fade away than the 

 rooks, as if distrustful of their safety, took flight to Kilmannock, 

 the seat of Mr. Haughton, near Dunbrody Abbey. In this 



