1 1 <S Transactions. 



good deal of calculation when they chanced to secure a stick in 

 the middle of a tree, hopping backwards and forwards among the 

 branches until they came opposite an opening sufficiently wide to 

 admit of their exit. When tliey waiit to ascend to their nest they 

 gei\erally do it by a spiral flight. The most difficult part of their 

 building is the laying of the first two or three sticks. They try 

 to balance them very carefully, still, in some instances, depend- 

 ing on the fork they have chosen, they fall time after time. 

 After the first few sticks lie securely the building is an easy 

 matter. The lining is entirely of grass, and they do not com- 

 plete the exterior before putting in the lining, but keep adding 

 to the height of tlie nest as they line it. That " honesty is the 

 best policy " is certainly not the Rook's motto. They are, with- 

 out exception, notorious thieves. No sooner do a pair leave their 

 nest for fresh materials than three or four are in it, tearing it to 

 pieces, evidently, from their hurried manner, quite aware that it 

 may be advisable that tlie owners should not find them there on 

 their return. Two of the nests were repeatedly attacked by 

 most of the Rooks, but, owing probably to the smallness of the 

 rookery, and certainly partly to the brave defence of the owners, 

 they withstood the attacks. In each case thei*e were three Rooks 

 connected with the nest. One was kept at an outside, but, 

 whenever the other two left, entered the nest, and began some 

 alterations. After a time one disappeared from each nest. A 

 person could not help wondering whether R.ooks were sometimes 

 guilty of bigamy, and whether their government was not stricter 

 than that of a certain district of North America. To us Rooks 

 seem all very much alike, still they know each other at a con- 

 siderable distance. During incubation the female is regularly 

 fed by the male, and I observed that when returning to the 

 rookery with food their partners always recognised them at a 

 distance of a hundred yards or more. Keepers were sent to 

 destroy tlie Rooks, and shot as many of the birds as they could, 

 pulled down what nests they could reach, and tired several shots 

 through those they could not, hoping to break the eggs. In this 

 they did not succeed, and the birds returned to some of the nests 

 after having been kept off for about twenty-four hours. Although 

 the weather was wet and rather cold, and in two of the nests at 

 least the eggs were almost hatched, the young birds came out all 

 right, but the eggs that were sat upon two or three days before any 

 of the others were not the first liatched. These birds appear to 



