ROOK. 265 



the most observing naturalists, and this is particularly 

 the case with the common Rook, whose extreme shy- 

 ness, so noticeable at all other times, seems almost 

 entirely laid aside during the breeding season. Sus- 

 picious beyond most birds when feeding alone, and 

 warned by sentinels when congregating in flocks, 

 no sooner does the time of reproduction arrive than, 

 with a nature apparently wholly changed, this species 

 seeks, voluntarily, the haunts of man, and, for a time 

 at least, appears indifierent to his presence, or the 

 sights and sounds of the busy homestead. There are 

 one or two other points also in connection with the 

 habits of this bird, for which it is equally difficult to 

 find a satisfactory ^' why or wherefore." Do rooks know 

 Sundays from week-days? and if not actually capable 

 of smelling gunpowder, do they, or do they not, know 

 a gun from a walking stick ? Often have I been led to 

 ask myself these two questions, and though scarcely 

 prepared to allow them an instinct equalled only by 

 man's reasoning powers, yet the very actions of these 

 birds, in both the instances I have cited, leads irre- 

 sistibly to the conclusion that by some means or other 

 they can and do discriminate in either case. 



There are probably few counties in England where 

 rookeries are more generally distributed than in Nor- 

 folk, this finely timbered district affording every 

 attraction from the nobleman's mansion, with its park 

 and pleasure grounds, to the snug manor-house with 

 its lofty elms or dark avenue of limes.* In the 



* Sir Tlios. Browne has the following strange note on these birds, 

 showing their equal abundance in his time, and the fact of the young 

 being esteemed in those days for medicinal as well as edible proper- 

 ties. " Spermelegous rooks, which, by reason of the great quantity 

 of corn-fields and rook-groves, are in great plenty. The young 

 ones are commonly eaten ; sometimes sold in Norwich market ; and 

 many are killed for their livers, in order to the cure of rickets." 

 2 M 



