252 THE BIRDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



particularly in dry seasons when their natural food is difficult 

 to procure, and it is not improbable that this " petty larceny " 

 habit has developed owing to the great increase of the birds, 

 and the consequent comparative scarcity of food. 



Nidification, as a rule, commences towards the end of 

 February or early in March, and eggs are met with in the 

 third week of the latter month, although they have been 

 noted at Giggleswick as early as the 9th. Some curious, 

 indeed remarkable, situations have been chosen for the nests : 

 the earliest noted being at Hull, where two pairs built and 

 reared young between the chimney pots of two houses in 

 George Street, the full particulars being set forth in the 

 Zoologist (1846, p. 1366). At Heworth near York a remarkable 

 instance occurred in 1887, when a pair of Rooks built in a 

 cage near the weathercock, at a height of 120 feet, on Heworth 

 Church, but were not successful in rearing young that year 

 nor the one following ; in 1889, however, two young were 

 brought off, in 1890 three were reared, and the parents nested 

 successfully since that time until the year 1903. Near 

 Beverley nests have been built in a high hedge, also in poplar 

 trees and willows, whilst some birds, whose nesting trees 

 had been blown down, built in elder bushes within eight feet 

 of the ground. A nest is also reported on the roof, close to 

 the chimney, of a house in Scarborough. At Stokesley in 

 Cleveland a colony of fifty pairs build in low saplings, and 

 many nests were, in 1900, not more than ten feet above 

 terra fir ma. 



There are numerous instances recorded in Yorkshire of 

 variation in plumage of this species. Two examples shot at 

 Pickering, on 13th May 1896, had the black feathers of the 

 dorsal plumage slightly margined with grey, giving the birds 

 a chequered appearance of an unsuual character. White, 

 albino, and pied varieties, also some of a dun or chocolate hue, 

 are known, and so early as 1805 a white Rook was recorded at 

 York, while Marmaduke Tunstall mentioned a pied individual, 

 also a brown coloured bird with white eyes, at his brother's 

 residence in Holderness (Tunst. MS., 1783, p. 56). 



The folk-lore connected with the Rook in Yorkshire is 



