74 ROOK. 



CORVUS FRUGILEGUS— Rook. 



The Rooks with busy claw 

 Foraging for sticks and straw. 



Keats— Fancy. 



Lofty elms and venerable oaks 

 Invite the Rook, who, high amid the boughs, 

 In early spring his airy city builds, 

 And ceaseless, caws amusive. 



Thomson— ^/jrtng'. 



The Rook is a thoroughly gregarious bird. At all seasons of 

 the year Rooks flock together ; and their sociability may be said to 

 be also indicated, by the constant preference they show for the close 

 neighbourhood of mankind. Rookeries abound in Herefordshire ; 

 not only in the towns and villages ; by detached farm houses, and 

 farm buildings ; but also very frequently in the middle of large 

 woods, or occupying a small cluster of trees, away from human 

 vicinity. In the Cathedral Close in the centre of Hereford, the 

 elms are occupied at this time (1884) by a colony of thirty-six 

 nests ; and on those in the Castle Green there are now fifty-four 

 nests ; on Aylstone Hill there are but three nests this year ; but 

 within a short distance of the city are numerous other rookeries 

 more or less large. 



In many cases Rooks each year desert the trees in which they 

 build, and roost for the autumn and winter months in other chosen 

 haunts, generally more sheltered spots in deep woods, returning to 

 the rookery in the spring. They have been noticed, however, to 

 visit the rookery occasionally, as if to see that the nests were safe 

 and unmolested. 



The cawing Rooks alone 

 Maintain the song of life, 

 And prate amid the elms, 

 With harsh, rough, colloquy. 

 A music in itself, 

 Or, if not music, joy. 



Mackay — Lullingsworth, 



The Rook sits high when the blast sweeps by. 



Right pleased with his wild see-saw ; 

 And though hollow and bleak, be the fierce wind's shriek, 



It is mocked by his loud caw-caw. 



Oh ! the merriest bird, the woods e'er saw, 

 Is the sable Rook with his loud caw-caw. 



Eliza Cook— The Rook. 



