42 
ROOK. 
YDFRAN OF THE ANCIENT BRITISH. 
Corvus frugilegus, LINN2US. GMELIN. 
Cornix frugilega, BRISSON. 
“« nigra frugilega, Ray. WILLUGHBY. 
Corvus—A Crow. Frugilegus. Fruges—Fruits. Lego—To collect 
or gather. 
Tue Rook is a native of most of the temperate regions 
of Europe and Asia, and is found in Japan, according to M. 
Temminck. Latham says that it does not occur in the Channel 
Islands, though it does in France; also in Denmark, Sweden, 
Russia, Silesia, and other countries of the former continent. 
It is, perhaps, more abundant in England than in any other 
part of the world, but decreases in numbers towards the 
extreme north, and is not found in the Orkney or Shetland 
Isles. 
There are two opinions as to the bare space at the base 
of the bill in these birds; some contending that it is natural, 
and others that it is caused by the thrusting of the bill into 
the ground in search of food. I cannot myself but lean to 
the former theory of the fact, and for it I give the following 
reasons conclusively set forth by the Rev. W. Waldo Cooper, 
of West-Rasen, Lincolnshire, in ‘The Naturalist,’ No. 3, pages 
53-54:—‘First, though the Rook is a great delver, yet he 
does not at all seasons dig equally; and at some seasons so 
little, as to allow the feathers to grow, at least partially, 
were abrasion the ‘sole’ cause of their absence. Secondly, the 
mode of his digging is not such as to cause much abrasion. 
Thirdly, I have never seen or heard of a specimen, not kept 
in confinement, in which this process was taking place; that 
is, the feathers ‘damaged only’ by digging. Fourthly, the 
