THE ROOK 
CORVUS FRUGILEGUS 
LocaL names in surrounding counties : 
Starus tN British Avirauna: A common and widely 
distributed resident in England, Wales, and Ireland, 
becoming more local in Scotland, although extending its 
range there. Its numbers are increased in autumn by 
Continental migrants. 
RapiaL DisrrRiBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 
Paut’s: There is a flourishing rookery within a thousand 
yards of St. Paul’s Cathedral at the present time (1908), 
in the historic precincts of Gray’s Inn; whilst in many 
other parts of the Metropolis the Rook is a familiar bird. 
A year or so ago quite a cluster of nests were built in the 
plane-trees at Gray’s Inn overhanging Theobald’s Road, 
but now the majority of the twenty-five nests are in the 
quieter portions of the enclosure. Other rookeries are 
studded about the more central parts of the Metropolitan 
area; one containing ten nests this spring is situated in 
Connaught Square, within a hundred yards or so of the 
Marble Arch. As we reach the more rural suburbs the 
colonies become more numerous and extensive, the bird 
being found breeding in every direction. It is quite a 
familiar species in all or most of the parks, although it 
has vanished as a breeding bird from certain localities, as, 
for instance, near Curzon Street, Mayfair. It also varies 
a good deal in numbers in the more central localities. 
There are few birds that display a greater and more 
persistent attachment to their breeding stations than the 
Rook. ‘Time works its vast changes, in a district, and 
country becomes town, the old nest-trees gradually 
become surrounded by houses, yet the ancestral line of 
Rooks remain in their old homes as year by year the green 
fields and the feeding-grounds become more and more 
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