ROOK. JACKDAW. 277 



projection of the upper mandible, but a perfectly black 

 face and bristly forehead. The museum collection also 

 contains several interesting varieties of this bird which 

 occur at times. No. 136. a is the more usual pied 

 variety. No. 136.b, a singularly brown specimen, and 

 No. 136. c is, or rather has been, pure white. A young 

 bird, also killed in this county, in 1851, had the 

 throat and beak white, the feathers of the wings patched 

 with white, and the claws and first joint of each toe a 

 delicate flesh colour. The following anecdote as to a 

 strange transition in plumage in this species is given by 

 the late Mr. Hunt : — " A gentleman of my acquaintance 

 had, in 1816, a young rook of a light ash colour, most 

 beautifully mottled over vdth black, and the quill and 

 tail-feathers elegantly barred. This curiosity he was 

 naturally anxious to keep ; when, upon the bird moult- 

 ing, all its mottled plumage vanished entirely, and it 

 became a jet black rook." 



CORVUS MONEDULA, Linnaeus. 



JACKDAW. 



The large number of churches in Norwich afford 

 ample accommodation in their various steeples for 

 these noisy denizens, whose nests are for the most 

 part inaccessible to the most daring climbers ; and 

 every weather-cock serves as a "place of call," every 

 crocket and finial as a temporary resting place. The 

 immense amount of material collected by these birds 

 at the commencement of the breeding season can 

 scarcely be credited by those who have not witnessed 

 the state of the belfry stairs in some of our churches, 

 littered from top to bottom with the debris of their 

 nests. In St. Peter's Mancroft especially, the ascent 



