118 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 they want to ascend to their nest they 
generally 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 the 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 the 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 there 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 Rooks 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 the Rooks, and shot as many of the birds as they could, 
pulled down what nests they could reach, and fired 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 hatched. These birds appear to 
