THE MIGRATIONS OF THE ROOK 277 



their flight, arrive in an exhausted condition on our 

 westernmost shores. 



Quicsitisque diu terris, ubi sidere detur, 

 In mare lassatis volucris vaga decidit alis. 



Ovid, Metant.^ I., 307-S. 



Long seeking land where none is to be found. 

 The worn, wing-weary bird drops and is drown'd. 



Perhaps the best instance on record ^ of such move- 

 ments occurred in October 1893, when late in the month 

 vast numbers (estimated at from 5000 to 6000) arrived 

 at Scilly from the south-east, accompanied by a few 

 Daws, and proceeded in a westerly direction. About the 

 same time a large flight of Rooks, presumably the same 

 birds, were met with by steamers out in the Atlantic 

 some 300 miles west of Ireland. These misguided 

 birds were in such an exhausted condition that some 

 fell into the sea and were drowned, being too weak to 

 retain their foothold on the vessel on which they had 

 alighted. It is said that these birds avoided the out- 

 ward-bound steamers, and sought only those which 

 were approaching the land. As there was nothing 

 unusual in the weather at the time of the birds' appear- 

 ance in Scilly, they were certainly not on this occasion 

 blown out to sea — a theory which has been advanced to 

 explain similar flights. 



Return movements from the Atlantic of considerable 

 numbers of rooks have several times been recorded at 

 stations on the west coast of Ireland. In 1884, between 

 2nd and 25th November, large numbers were arriving, 

 either in flocks or at intervals, at Tearaght Island and 

 at the Skelligs, off the coast of Kerry, for several days. 

 . Again, in 1887, between 21st October and 23rd 



' J. H. Jenkinson, The Field, 3rd March 1894. 

 I. S 2 



