250 THE FEATHERED TRIBES. 



tte horse's tread, give a rustle, a ca-w, and then all quiet again ? .... In short, what 

 Englishman recalls the dear old home of his birth and his youth, with all its affections, 

 and delights, and transactions ; who recalls its garden-nooks, its bee-hives by the sunny 

 wall, its fields, its woods, its friends, its favourite animals, its sorrows and its merriments, 

 its gay meetings and its partings to meet there no moi'e, everything that makes that 

 spot what no other siDot on earth besides ever can bo by any magic, even the most 

 powerful magic of love — and does not find the English rook a part of his retrospect, 

 uttering its joyous, rough, John Bullish caw, or his laughable midnight muttering, 

 insignificant as he is in himself, an indispensable dweller in the paradise of the' past ?" * 



The Rook has a great analogy to the carrion crow, and, indeed, is not to be distin- 

 guished from it without considerable difficulty. The principal distinctive character 

 consists in the nudity of the base of the bill and of the forehead, and upper part of the 

 throat in the rook, which parts are covered with fcatliors in the carrion crow ; but as 

 even this is not observable in the young bird, it seems likely to be rather an artificial 

 than a natural distinction, arising from the rook thrusting its beak into and raking the 

 ground, and thus causing a trituration on the parts in question, which may efface the 

 feathers. To recognise the rook, therefore, before its first moult, we must observe that 

 its bill is longer than the head, and is entirely straight ; while in the crow it is not 

 longer than the head, and the ujDper mandible is bent at the point, and jagged towards 

 the end on both sides ; the feathers, moreover, of the front part of the neck arc silky, and 

 rounded at their end in the rook ; but they are stiff and pointed in the crow. The iris 

 also is hazel in the crow, but bluish in the present species. Rooks, however, do not feed 

 on carrion, or the flesh of large animals, but confine themselves to grain, and the larvic 

 of insects, especially the chafer. It is, therefore, not easy to determine whether they are 

 a greater good or evil to the agriculturist. 



These birds seem partial to our island, as they remain here the whole year ; but in 

 France, and most parts of Europe, especially to the south, they are birds of passage ; and 

 in Spain, it is said, are not known. Their gregarious disj)osition, jDarticularly during 

 incubation, on the tops of lofty trees, is well known. After the breeding season they 

 disperse, and in a great measure abandon the trees in which, they bred their j'oung. The 

 eggs, five in number, a little smaller than those of the crow, are bluish green, with dark 

 blotches ; they begin to build early in March, and the male and female sit by turns. 

 White and pied varieties arc sometimes seen. 



Some years ago there were several large elm trees in the college garden behind the 

 Ecclesiastical Court, in Doctors' Commons, in which a number of rooks had taken up 

 their abode, forming, in appearance, a sort of conrocation of aerial ecclesiastics. A young- 

 gentleman who lodged in an attic, and was their close neighbour, frequently entertained 

 himself with thinning this covey of black game by means of a cross-bow. On the 

 opposite side lived a curious old civilian, who observing from his study that the rooks 

 often dropped senseless from their perch, making no sign, nor any sign being made to his 

 vision to account for the phenomenon, sets his wits to work to discover the cause. It 

 was, probalily, during a profitless time of peace, and the doctor having plenty of leisure, 

 weighed the matter over and over, till he was at length fullj' satisfied that ]w had made 

 a great ornithological discovery, that its promulgation would give wings to his fame, 

 a distinction wliith lie seems to havo highly ap})rcciatcd. 



His gocse-quill and foolscap were qiuckly in requisition, and he actually wrolc a 

 treatise, stating circumstantially what he himself had seen, and in conclusion, giving it 

 as the settled conviction of his mind, tliat rooks were subject to the faltiiKj m'c/nic.ss ! 



The Eev. Mr. Bingley has oljservcd, " tliat as soon as rooks luive iinishcd tlu'ir nests, 



• William Kowitt. 



