ROOK. 275 



deceived me till examined more closely. From tliese 

 exceptional cases, it is quite evident that the naked skin 

 around the bill can by no means be relied upon as a 

 certain distinction between the rook and the crow, 

 and at the same time, as these birds have been pro- 

 curing their food in the open country during many 

 months, after the manner of their kindred, without 

 producing the slightest abrasion, there is but little 

 reason for attributing that peculiarity to the friction of 

 the soil. During the past winter (1864-5) I have met 

 with three examples of these black-faced rooks. One 

 killed on the 15th of December; a pied variety (having 

 a white patch under the chin, and several primaries 

 in each wing pure white) on the 24th of January, 

 and another in the normal colouring of the species 

 on the 23rd of February. This bird, which I still pre- 

 serve, has evidently completed its autumn moult, and, 

 excepting the bristles and the absence of any white skin, 

 is in full adult plumage, distinguishable from the carrion- 

 crow by the silky feathers on the nape of the neck, and 

 the generally glossy appearance of its feathers, though 

 the stoutness of the beak and the dark colour of the 

 head render it, at first sight, very liable to be mis- 

 taken for its more sombre relative. In the Rev. Mr. 

 Dowell's note-book, I also find two records of similar 

 examples, one killed on the 21st of January, the other on 

 the 7th of March, and being desirous of ascertaining if 

 rooks, in this state of plumage, paired with others of the 

 ordinary type, I solicited several individuals to watch 

 for their appearance in different rookeries. Subsequently 

 I learnt from Mr. Samuel Blyth that, out of six rooks 

 killed by himself in the act of collecting sticks for 

 nesting purposes (all of which proved to be males), one 

 exhibited a pure black face, with stout bristles, like 

 young birds in their first summer. Singular deformities 

 in the beaks of this species are occasionally noticed, of 

 2 n2 



