THE ROOK. 235 



The Eooks generally begin to repair their old nests or 

 build new ones about the first week of March, and during 

 the progress of the work great pilfering of the materials and 

 fighting often takes place amongst the builders, the uproar 

 in the rookery being very great all the while. The nests, 

 which are constructed of sticks and twigs, lined with fibrous 

 roots, straw, grass, and other soft materials, are generally 

 placed towards the top of the trees in the rookery, as many 

 as ten or fifteen being often seen on one tree. The eggs, 

 which are from four to six in number, are bluish green, 

 blotched, streaked, and spotted or freckled with olive- 

 brown. The plumage seldom varies, but occasionally an 

 albino occurs. A white-coloured specimen was got at 

 Spottiswoode in 1883.^ 



The Eev. Alexander Waugh, D.D., London, was born 

 on the 16th of August 1754, at East Gordon, in the 

 Merse, and the following is one of his anecdotes con- 

 nected with it : "I remember when I returned home 

 at the vacation of Earlstoun school, I frequently went 

 out to the Muir to have some talk with my father's 

 shepherd, a douce, talkative, and wise man in his way; 

 and he told me, a wondering boy, a great many things 

 I had never read in my school-books. For instance, 

 about the Craws — (there were plenty of Craws about 

 Gordon Muir, and I often wondered what they got to 

 feed on), that they aye lay the first stick of their nests on 

 Candlemas day, and that some of them that big their nests 

 on rocks and cliffs have siccan skill of the wind that if it 

 is to blow mainly from the east in the following spring, 

 they are sure to build their nests on what will be the bieldy 

 side, and many a ane that notices it can tell frae what airt 

 the wind will blaw. After expressing my admiring belief 



1 See Scotsman, 3rd March 1887. 



