Observations on the Habits of the Rook, 105 



night, or through bruises received in the fall of the cage. 

 Thus both the rooks were unlucky. The old woman, no 

 doubt, could clearly trace their misfortunes to her crowing 

 hen. However, the experiment with the two young rooks, 

 though not perfect, has nevertheless been of some use. It 

 has shown us that the carrion crow makes no distinction 

 betwixt its own eggs and those of the rook ; that it can know 

 nothing of the actual time required to sit upon eggs in order 

 to produce the young ; that the young of the rook will thrive 

 under the care of the carrion crow, just as well as under that 

 of its own parents ; and finally, that the feathers fall off from 

 the root of the rook's bill, by the order of nature, as was sur- 

 mised by the intelligent Bewick, and not by the process of 

 the bird's thrusting its bill into the earth, in search of food, 

 as is the opinion of some naturalists. [III. 402., V. 241.] 



The rook advances through the heavens with a very re- 

 gular and a somewhat tardy beat of wing; but it is capable of 

 proceeding with great velocity when it chooses : witness its 

 pursuit and attack on the sparrowhawk and kestrel. It is 

 apt to injure, in the course ot' time, the elm trees on which it 

 builds its nest, by nipping off the uppermost twigs. But this, 

 after all, is mere conjecture. The damage may be caust^d by 

 an accumulation of nests, or by the constant resort of such a 

 number of birds to one tree. Certain, however, it is, that, 

 when rooks have taken possession of an elm tree for the pur- 

 pose of incubation, the uppermost branches of that tree are 

 often subject to premature decay. 



Though the flocks of rooks appear to have no objection to 

 keep company, from time to time, with the carrion crows, in a 

 winter's evening, before they retire to roost, still I can never 

 see a carrion crow build its nest in a rookery. There was 

 always a carrion crow's nest here, in a clump of high Scotch 

 pines, near the stables, till the rooks got possession of the 

 trees ; the carrion couple then forsook the place : the rooks 

 were dislodged from this clump of trees ; and then a pair of 

 carrion crows (the same, for aught I know to the contrary) 

 came and built their nest in it. 



The rook lays from three to five eggs, varying much, like 

 those of the carrion crow, in colour, shape, and size. After 

 the rooks have built, and even lined their nests, they leave 

 them on the approach of night, to repair to the general ren- 

 dezvous at Nostell Priory ; but, as soon as they begin to 

 lay, they then no longer quit the trees' at night, until they 

 have reared their young. When this has been effected, we 

 see large flocks of them resorting to the different woods of the 

 neighbourhood to pass the night. This they continue to do, 

 till a few days before the autumnal equinox, when, for reasons 



