24: TRAySACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OP GLASGOW. 



wlien building operations in connection with the railway station 

 began in 1842.^ At Jordanhill a Rookery is reported, but I have 

 no particulars, and for the northern circuit of the City my schedule 

 is also blank. I am aware that the City boundary stretches to 

 the Kelvin at Garscube Mill, including the Aci-e Plantation and 

 other woods where Rooks may nest, and I should like informa- 

 tion on this point, but the nearest Rookery I know in this locality 

 is at Kenmure House, Bishopbriggs, where is a fairly large one. 

 The north-east district does not seem to provide sustenance 

 for a single Rook family; it is the "stricken field " in an actual 

 sense — " a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night." 

 Thus I come back to Alexandra Park, from which I started, 

 and my circuit is completed. 



The eight Rookeries inside the City (Dalmarnock, Belvidere, 

 Langside, Camphill, Crossbill, Ibroxhill, Bellahouston, and Botanic 

 Gardens) contain 384 nests; and the other Rookeries of which I 

 have given details, (say) 911 nests = 1,295 in all. I add to this 

 10 per cent, for omissions and oversights (my experience is that I 

 under-estimate the numbers of birds, generally speaking), making 

 a total of 1,425 nests. This represents 2,850 parent birds, and 

 assuming that each nest sends out into the world two young birds, 

 you have a further 2,850, making the native Rook population of 

 the outskirts of Glasgow this summer amount to 5,700 birds. 



There is nothing remarkable in any of the nesting-places I 

 have named; they are all, as is usual, in close proximity to our 

 houses, and sometimes on the public road ; the majority of nests 

 are in beeeh trees, but other kinds are used, and I can form no 

 opinion as to why Rooks choose one species or one group of trees 

 in preference to another. It may be remarked, however, that 

 most of these Rookeries are close to or within sight of water, 

 but, at the same time, you have a place, like the Nether PoUok 

 policies, with the Cart flowing through them and abounding in 

 wood, and yet not a Rook's nest therein. 



1 Op. cit. , p. 67-8. The Rookery is figured in a drawing by the late 

 Wm. Simpson, R.I., now in the Corporation Galleries, and entitled 

 "Bell's Quarry and George Square in the Thirties." 



