544 CORVUS FRUGILEGUS. 



over a field or meadow at a great height, something in it ap- 

 pears suddenly to attract their attention, and they descend 

 headlong, performing singular evolutions as they turn from side 

 to side and wind among each other. In general, however, they 

 settle with more caution, sometimes flying repeatedly over the 

 ground, often dropping down one by one, and occasionally 

 perching for a while in the neighbouring trees before venturing 

 to alight. 



The cry of the E-Ook resembles the syllable Khraa^ more or 

 less harsh or soft according to occasion. There is great diver- 

 sity in the voice of individuals, some having much louder and 

 clearer notes than others. Although separately their cries are 

 monotonous and disagreeable, yet from a large flock, and at 

 some distance, they are by no means unpleasant ; and those who 

 have become habituated to the noise of a rookery, do not gene- 

 rally find it annoying. 



Although the staple food of the Rook is larvae and worms, 

 it also eats shell-fish, Crustacea, coleopterous insects, lizards, 

 seeds, especially of cereal plants, acorns, beech-nuts, portions of 

 roots of grasses, and in winter even turnips. I have seen rooks 

 picking at a fish on the beach, but I believe they never devour 

 carrion, although they may be seen about a dead horse or cow 

 searching for larvse. While feeding, they freely associate with 

 Jackdaws, and even Gulls ; and I have seen Starlings, Red- 

 wings, Fieldfares and Missel Thrushes mingling with them 

 without much apprehension of danger. 



Rooks are not easily shot in the fields unless one come acci- 

 dentally upon some that have straggled to the edge, for they 

 are commonly shy and vigilant. At the same time they seem to 

 calculate upon the protection which they usually receive in the 

 neighbourhood of their breeding places, and are less shy on the 

 lawn and in the park than on the distant pastures and in the 

 ploughed fields. In the neighbourhood of towns they are al- 

 ways more wary than in the country, so that holding out a gun 

 or a stick, or even the arm, or standing stock still, is sure to 

 make them fly ofi^", unless they be several hundred yards distant. 



In winter they are sometimes reduced to as great straits as 

 during a parched summer ; for when snow lies for weeks on 



