Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 489 



that a pair of herons built their nest in the rookery at Dromedaragh 

 (county of Antrim), that the rooks tore the first nest to pieces, but 

 that the herons eventually succeeded, and reared their brood in 

 safety. A few years before that time about one hundred and fifty 

 young rooks had been killed there during a storm, by being blown 

 out of the nests. Among adult birds, there was an extraordinary 

 fatality in the county of Westmeath on the night of the great hurri- 

 cane of January 7th, 1839. As was noticed in a communication to 

 the Annals*, my friend Mr. R. Ball was assured by Dean Vig- 

 nolles, on whose property the circumstance occurred, that the ama- 

 zing number of 33,000 f were picked up dead on the shores of a 

 lake some miles in length, and with extensive rookeries on its 

 borders. So remarkably numerous were the dead bodies, that as a 

 matter of curiosity they were reckoned by some boys as they gathered 

 them into heaps. Dean Vignolles likewise submitted to Mr. Ball's 

 inspection a more than ordinarily strong panel of a new window 

 shutter, which was driven in and split by a rook being dashed 

 against it on the night in question — the innocent cause of the damage 

 was found dead between the window and the shutter inside the 

 room. Other fatalities occasionally befall the rook. In the autumn 

 of 1831 (?) there was a dense fog over Lough Neagh audits neigh- 

 bourhood for two nights and an entire day, during which time great 

 numbers of these birds perished in its waters, and were afterwards 

 washed ashore. I have been told that a similar circumstance occurred 

 in the harbour of Cove in the south of Ireland some years ago. 



At Redhall, county of Antrim, a friend once saw a brood of four 

 young rooks, all of which were white : both parents were of the or- 

 dinary sable hue. J. V. Stewart, Esq. of Rockhill, near Letterkenny, 

 informs me that he possesses two varieties of the rook, one entirely 

 of a dingy brown colour, and having a diseased appearance ; and the 

 other with two white bars across the wings, the rest of the plumage 

 being of the usual colour. In the year 1839 I was told by Mr. G. 

 J. Allman of Bandon, that several light fawn-coloured birds of this 

 species were shot near to that town a few years before, some of which 

 he had seen in company with other rooks, that freely associated with 

 them. 



In Scotland these birds have, by suiting themselves to circum- 

 stances, come under my observation in a manner in which they have 

 not done in Ireland. I have for many miles along the coast of Ayr- 

 shire met with them in the autumn, feeding among the fresh sea- 

 weed or rejectamenta of the preceding tide ; and at other times they 

 were crowded seeking for food among the heaps of sea- weed collect- 



* • Note on the Effects of the Hurricane of January 7, 1839, in Ireland, 

 on some Birds, Fishes, &c.' vol. iii. p. 182. 



f Were a figure taken off the above number, it would be reduced to what 

 I have remarked to constitute a respectable rookery. Mr. Jesse too states that 

 " the average number of rooks' nests, during the last four years, in the ave- 

 nue of Hampton Court Park, has been about 750 ; allowing three young 

 birds and a pair of old ones to each nest, the number would amount to 

 3750." — Gleanings, p. Go, 1st Ed. 



