ROOK. 291 



pairs built on some poplars in a central part of Manchester, 

 and Bewick noticed a nest on the vane of the Exchange, in 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which was tenanted for ten successive 

 seasons till the spire was taken dow^n ; while Macgillivray 

 speaks of several small rookeries in the heart of Edinburgh.* 



Rooks are often credited with a peculiar degree of sagacity 

 in selecting or avoiding certain trees, and it has been more 

 than once asserted that any which have been marked in the 

 usual way for felling are abandoned by the birds ; but stronger 

 evidence is required before the naturalist can accept this as 

 the sole warning upon which they have acted. There may 

 be better grounds for supposing that they leave trees the 

 insecurity of which is proved by subsequent storms. The 

 Author is inclined in these cases to think that the age, or 

 incipient decay of the trees, had affected the upper branches, 

 and that the Rooks found them less fit for their purpose than 

 those of more healthy trees which were close by. Other 

 kinds of knowledge are also ascribed to Rooks. They are 

 commonly believed to forecast the weather ; and to strengthen 

 their nests against a coming gale of wind, while several 

 stories profess to shew their yet more marvellous acquaint- 

 ance with human affairs, manifested by a change of abode, 

 on the death or arrival of a proprietor who has disturbed 

 or favoured their interests — some of these tales being sup- 

 ported by a curious coincidence of events. t 



The balance between injury or benefit derived from Rooks 



* An instance of Rooks building in clifis is given by De Montbeillard, and 

 tbeir occupying for many years the churcli of Walbouru in Lincolnshire is noticed 

 by Erasmus Darwin (Zoonomia, Ed. 3, i. p. 247). Mr. G. Norman mentions (Zool. 

 p. 1360) two nests on housetops at Kingston-on-Hull in 1846, and Mr. Stevenson 

 (Zool. s.s. p. 1910) a nest attempted to be built in 1869 on the church at Swaff- 

 ham in Norfolk. 



f The particulars of two such coincidences have been kindly communi- 

 cated to the Editor, through Mr. Knox, by Lord Home. In 1824 the late 

 Lord Home was desirous of destroying a rookery near Coldstream, and, after 

 three years, effected his purpose. During the remainder of his life not a single 

 Rook's nest was built on the property, but in 1842, the first spring after his 

 death, the birds returned, not indeed to their former haunts, but to some old 

 trees within a mile of the place. A similar thing happened at Douglas Castle. 

 The Rooks had been driven away in 1841. In 1857 the present Lord Home 

 went to live there, and in the following year they returned to their old quarters. 



