ROOK 795 
the AMIDAVAD (p. 11), while Vidua principalis (W1DOW-BIRD) is the 
“Koning Roodebec” or King of the same (cf. Layard, B. S. Afr. 
pp. 192, 188). 
ROOK (Anglo-Saxon Hréc, Icelandic Hrékr,! Swedish Raka, 
Dutch Loek, Gaelic Rocas), the Corvus frugilegus of ornithology, and 
throughout a great part of Europe the commonest and best-known 
of the Crow-tribe. Beside its pre-eminently gregarious habits, which 
did not escape the notice of Virgil (Georg. 1. 382)? and are so unlike 
those of nearly every other member of the Corvidx,® the Rook is at 
once distinguishable from the rest by commonly losing at an early 
age the feathers from its face, leaving a bare, scabrous and greyish- 
white skin that is sufficiently visible at some distance. In the 
comparatively rare cases in which tliese feathers persist, the Rook 
may be readily known from the black form of Crow by the rich 
purple gloss of its black plumage, especially on the head and neck, 
the feathers of which are soft and not pointed. In a general way 
the appearance and manners of the Rook are so well known, to 
most inhabitants of the British Islands especially, that it is needless 
here to dwell upon them, and particularly its habit of forming com- 
munities in the breeding-season, which it possesses in a measure 
beyond that of any other land-bird of the northern hemisphere. 
Yet each of these communities, or rookeries, seems to have some 
custom intrinsically its own, the details of which want of space 
forbids any attempt to set before the reader. In a general way the 
least-known part of the Rook’s mode of life are facts relating to 
its migration and geographical distribution. Though the great 
majority of Rooks in Britain are sedentary, or only change their 
abode to a very limited extent, it is now certain that a very consider- 
able number visit this country in or towards autumn, not necessarily 
to abide here, but merely to pass onward, like most other kinds of 
birds, to winter further southward; and, at the same season or even a 
little earlier, it cannot be doubted that a large proportion of the young 
of the year emigrate in the same direction. As a species the Rook 
on the European continent only resides during the whole year 
1 The bird, however, does not inhabit Iceland, and the language to which the 
word (from which is said to come the French Frewx) belongs would perhaps be more 
correctly termed Old Teutonic. There are many local German names of the same 
origin, such as Rooke, Rouch, Ruch and others, but the bird is generally known 
in Germany as the Saat-Krihe, i.e. Seed- (=Corn-) Crow. In Pomerania it was 
formerly Korrock (A. von Homeyer, Zeitschr. fiir Orn. xiv. p. 136). 
2 This is the more noteworthy as the district in which he was born and 
educated is almost the only part of Italy in which the Rook breeds. Shelley 
also very truly mentions the ‘“‘legioned Rooks,” to which he stood listening 
‘‘mid the mountains Euganean,” in his Lines written among those hills. 
3 The winter-gatherings of one of the Americar species, though sufficiently 
remarkable, seem to be in no way comparable to those of the Rook. 
