226 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
country in which the bird finds itself in the breed- 
ing-season: it is made of sticks and straw, and lined 
with wool and hair. 
The Hooded Crow has the beak black and strong ; 
irides dark brown; head, cheeks, throat and neck in 
front shining bluish black; wings and tail the same ; 
nape of the neck, back, rump and all the under sur- 
face smoke-grey; the shafts of the feathers dark 
slate-grey;* legs, toes and claws shining black. 
Varieties of this bird occasionally occur, and it is 
said also sometimes to cross with the Carrion 
Crow. 
The egg is mottled all over with greenish brown 
on alight green ground: it is rather smaller than 
that of the Carrion Crow. 
Rook, Corvus frugilegus. The Rook, as everyone 
knows, is one of our commonest birds, and may be 
seen in large flocks in all parts of the county at any 
time of the year: it is so numerous throughout 
England generally, and is so diligent in search of 
its food in all the cultivated lands, that the benefit or 
damage done by this bird to the agriculturist has 
formed the subject of much dispute, and a good deal 
has been written on both sides of the question. 
The truth is, after all, that the Rook does both good 
and harm, and must, like most other birds, be 
judged by the preponderance of one over the other: 
« Yarrell, vol. i1., p. 93. 
