232 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



from Howard Saunders, to be pretty generally dis- 

 tributed over the Continent ; while eastwards, to 

 quote verbaiim, "In Asia it nests in Turkestan and 

 sparingly in Cashmere ; in Western Siberia it meets 

 and interbreeds freely with the Hooded Crow. In 

 Northern China and Japan the Carrion -Crow again 

 prevails." 



The Rook. 



This is a very gregarious species, plentiful in 

 England, Wales, and Ireland, and according to 

 Howard Saunders, increasing in Scotland. In a 

 sense it may be looked upon as beneficial to the 

 farmer for the amount of destructive grubs, larvae of 

 insects, worms, slugs, etc., which it picks up on his 

 ploughed lands ; but, then, on the other hand, it is 

 very destructive to his newly-sown grain. Perhaps 

 the amount of evil and ofood balances one another. 

 At any rate, although the Rook is very fond of 

 eggs, and will, says Howard Saunders, even hunt to 

 obtain them, it is nothing^ like so destructive as the 

 Carrion -Crow. 



The chief interest attaching to the Rook, I think, 

 is in its nesting habits, in which it displays a great 

 deal of sociability, and we in England would not 

 like to be without our "Rookeries," the term applied 

 to the places where a number of rooks assemble and 

 choose a suitable site for building purposes. These 

 " Rookeries " are distributed all over the country, 

 and are the favourite appanages of our old Country 

 Seats. Indeed they are most jealously guarded by 



