144 Rooks’ NEsTs. 
Rooks’ Nests. By Mrs THompson, “ Inveresk,’’ Castle Street. 
[This paper was written in 1903 for a friend in Edinburgh, so it 
refers to the date of nest building that year. This year, 
1906, the birds have been building a nest since about the 
26th January. | 
Having recently come to reside near a rookery, I have been 
much interested this spring in watching their building operations, 
and, in consequence of being confined to my room with a cold, 
had ample opportunity of so doing. The first nest was begun 
about the 23rd of February, and I discovered that five birds were 
occupied upon it. First, I noticed three birds in particular, one 
much larger than the others ; he and one of the others always flew 
away and returned together, and then this larger bird, which I 
called the architect, perched near and watched the other two 
building, flying down every now and then to lend a helping hand, 
and returning to his perch, waited till one flew from the nest, when 
he always went too. Being interested in all this, I frequently 
looked to see how they were getting on. It was then I observed 
two other birds were always sitting close by, one above the other. 
They looked what I supposed to be young, they and the builders 
being much smaller than the architect. I thought these two were 
engaged in pulling down the nest, but, to my surprise, I saw the 
upper .one break off a twig, pass it on to the lower bird, who 
passed on to the next. This nest took nearly ten days to finish. 
Latterly, one of the builders never seemed to leave it whilst I 
watched. Its head popped up now and then, but I imagined it 
was lining the nest. I must, however, premise that I only 
watched them at intervals, and not with any idea that my observa- 
tions would be of any use. Since I have been here a puzzle has 
been solved also with regard to bird habits, which may be of 
interest. Before coming here I lived at the Craigs, and the last 
spring I was there, for the first time, I saw in a grass field at the 
top of a steep bank below the wood numbers of little bundles of 
twigs laid crossways on the grass in a straight line, a short distance 
apart, and I wondered what game the village children could be 
playing. This drew my attention to the fact that the path I was 
on had also little bundles of twigs at intervals, and these went 
on in another direction to another field. The children were not 
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