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On a blue-grey variety of the Hook.



A BLUE-GREY VARIETY OF THE ROOK.


By E. W. H. Blagg.


On May 18th last I obtained a very remarkable variety of

the Book. It was a young bird which was not quite old enough to

be able to fly, and I found it perched on a bush close to the Rookery

here, it having evidently just flopped down from the nest. In its

colouring this bird is very similar to a blue Andalusian fowl. I sent

it off at once to Messrs. Rowland Ward, Ltd., to be set up, and

while in their possession Mr. F. W. Frohawk has made a most

admirable drawing of the bird, which is very effectively reproduced in

the ‘ Field ’ of September 2nd, to which I would refer your readers

who are interested in this very rare and striking variety, and I

cannot do better than quote Mr. Frohawk’s detailed description of

the bird : “ The head and neck, which are the darkest parts, are dull

purplish-brown with faint dusky bars; back and rump drab-grey;

wings and tail light ashen-grey transversely barred w T ith purplish-

brown, forming broad submarginal bands on the primaries and

secondaries as well as on the primary and secondary coverts. There

are also indistinct narrow median bars on all these feathers and on

the mantle and scapulars also; the tail and upper tail coverts are

conspicuously barred; the rump is less distinctly marked. The

ashy-grey ground colour of the under parts is also mottled with

dusky bars. The bill is deep horn brown, the legs and feet are black

and the irides hazel.”


On May 20th a second young bird, precisely similar in colour

and markings, also flopped down from the nest. This bird I tried to

keep alive, with the intention of sending it to the London “ Zoo/'

but it was very thin and weak and did not long survive. I have

presented it to the North Staffordshire Natural History Museum.


I strongly suspect that the parent birds ceased to feed these

two youngsters, owing to their peculiar appearance, and that starva¬

tion was the cause of their flopping down from the nest, for this

year we had no youngsters of ordinary colouring tumbling down

from the trees at perching time. If there are rough winds a good

many young birds generally get sent down, but this season the

weather was fairly calm at the time the youngsters left their nests.



