ROOK. 43 
operation of abrasion must be painful, and it must be con- 
tinued; so that the poor bird must be put to torture every 
time he digs deep after a worm or a grub; and this I cannot 
but consider as inconsistent with the universal tender-kindness 
of that Almighty Being, who has ordered him to seek go 
large a portion of his food below the surface of the earth. 
Fifthly, the Carrion Crow and the Jackdaw, which are also 
great diggers, never exhibit, as far as I know, any signs of 
abrasion. Sixthly, the exact correspondence of the line of 
denudation in all the specimens I have examined, points rather 
to natural, than to artificial causes.’ 
Rooks are strictly gregarious in all their habits, and are 
thus identified with the ‘corvus’ of the Romans: they build 
together in trees, and consort ‘together in search of food 
throughout the year. The same colonies, however, admit of 
no influx of strangers; none but natives born are made free 
of their society—their freedom is that of birth. They breed 
on the same trees, and occupy the same nests from year to 
year; if, however, the trees give symptoms of decay, they are 
quitted for sounder ones, and it has even been observed that 
they have forsaken some, the bark of which had been peeled 
off preparatory to their being felled. Strange stories are told, 
one in my neighbourhood, of their following the fortunes of 
owners who have left their dwelling-places, and of their having 
through some mysterious instinct, abandoned their rookeries 
near a mansion when the house was about to be pulled down, 
or even to be left untenanted. 
The food of the Rook consists of the larve of cockchaffers, 
and those of other beetles, moths, and insects, wire-worms, 
snails, slugs, and worms, as also potatoes and other fruits, and 
grains; ‘fruges consumere nati,’ as their specific name imports. 
In the autumn they pluck and frequently bury acorns in the 
earth, and probably walnuts and fir cones, which they likewise 
earry off, provident, it is thought, of a season of want. 
The ‘caw’ of the Rook needs no description. 
Early in March, the nests of the previous year are begun 
to be repaired, and some new ones are necessarily built by 
the young of that date. The male diligently feeds the female, 
and occasionally takes her place on the eggs. The young 
are fledged by the end of May, or the beginning of June; 
and second broods are sometimes produced as late as November; 
but possibly they should be considered rather as early than 
late ones. 
