138 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
I can quite give credit to this anecdote, for I have 
known two similar cases in which one rook was detected 
stealing sticks from another ; in both instances, however, 
the punishment was inflicted by more than the injured 
bird, and in one case with such severity that the offender's 
life was forfeited. I have more than once seen a rook 
chased from a rookery by a number of its inhabitants, 
but whether the hostility was shown because he was a 
stranger or a criminal I could not discover, but most 
likely the latter. 
Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors, 
says that “in Scotland the crows, who take such good 
care to keep out of gunshot on every ‘lawful day,’ on 
the Sabbath come close up to the houses, and seek their 
food within a few yards of the farmer and his men, dis- 
covering the occurrence of the sacred day from the ring- 
ing the bells and the discontinuance of labour in the 
fields, and knowing that while it lasts they are safe.” 
Various instances have been recorded of rooks eating 
eggs, and I once saw a pair on the 4th of June actively 
engaged for some time in chasing.a pair of green plovers 
in a field on the verge of the forest. They were evi- 
dently bent on driving them away from a particular 
spot, which the plovers seemed as determined not +o 
leave, and from their pertinacity I concluded that their 
nest was thereabouts, and that they suspected the rooks 
of a wish to plunder it, a conclusion which was no doubt 
correct. 
The rook is occasionally subject to variations of 
plumage, and the saying of “as black as a crow” is not 
always applicable. In March, 1860, one was killed near 
us which was uniformly speckled with white. 
I have already said that I think the Jackdaw (C. 
