The Rook iSi 



entitled "Little Brothers of the Air."* The accuracv of this lady's observations 

 will be at once recognized by all who have carefully studied the habits of birds. 

 The authoress' plea for the Crow, at the end of that chapter of her book, 

 though true in a measure of our Rook, could not be used in defence of the 

 Carrion or Hooded Crows; she says: — "A Crow parent on a foraging ex- 

 pedition is a most unwelcome visitor to the farmer with young chickens, or the 

 bird-lover interested in the fate of nestlings. Yet when I saw the persecuted 

 creature in the character of provider for four hungiy and ever clamorous mouths, 

 to whose wants she is as alive as we are to the wants of our babies, I took a 

 new view of Crow depredations, and could not see why her children should not 

 have a chicken or a bird for breakfast, as well as ours. Poor hunted Crow, 

 against whom ever}' man's hand is raised ! She feels, with reason, that every 

 human being is a deadly enemy thirsting for her life, that every cylinder pointed 

 upwards is loaded with death, that every string is a cruel snare to entangle and 

 maim her — yet whose offspring, dear as ours to us, clamour for food. How- 

 should she know that it is wrong to eat chickens ; or that Robin babies were 

 made to live and grow up, and Crow babies to die of starvation ? The farmer 

 ignores the millions of insects she destroys, and shoots her for the one chicken 

 she takes, though she has been amply proved to be one of his most valuable 

 servants." 



The note of the Rook is usually carr, but sometimes catv, and one of the 

 birds in a neighbour's rookery, born and reared during incessant rains, seemed to 

 have contracted a chronic cold, for his note was like that of a Golden Eagle, ar-cc-o. 



The food in summer consists of grain, worms, snails, insects and their larvae, 

 and in dry-seasons or arid localities, of mice, fish, mollusca, young birds, eggs, 

 the maggots in carrion and possibly the flesh itself. Later in the year fruits, 

 beech-nuts, acorns, and berries ; but in winter, when all these are gone, it has 

 to get what it can from refuse heaps or from the scraps cast out from houses ; 

 though, when opportunity offers, it does not scruple to destroy sparrows and 

 other small birds. 



The Rook is not suitable either for cage or aviary ; ni}- brother had one for 

 some time, but it was anything but an interesting pet. Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote 

 writes: — "The Rook is harmless; but, like the Carrion-Crow, very sluggish in 

 its movements ; scarcely ever uttering a sound. It is also very wild and never 

 attempts to talk, at least that is my experience." f 



* I'ublished by Houghton, llifflin & Co., Boston and New York. 



t In the ''Zoologist," for 1SS7, p. 26S, is an account bv Mr. C. R. Gawen of a hand-reared Rook (which 

 was allowed its freedom), building two nests in a rookery, near the house, and feeding two hens, partly on raw 

 meat and bread and milk from the outhouse where he was fed. Good liviuy had made a bigamist of him ! 



