98 CORVID.E. 



where tliey are still fed for a time, but soon learn to select 

 and obtain sufficient for their own subsistence. The nest 

 trees are in some cases deserted from this time, and all the 

 inhabitants of the rookery roost together in some neighbour- 

 ing wood, from whence at an early hour they repair in flocks 

 to their feeding-ground, returning together with slow and 

 measured flight in the evening. Whenever the main body 

 are feeding, or otherwise engaged on the ground, two or 

 three individuals are generally seen posted, like sentinels, in 

 trees close by, whose note of caution or alarm appears to be 

 perfectly understood by the rest, and surprise or danger 

 avoided apparently by a concerted understanding among 

 them. 



I have been informed by good observers, that besides the 

 general hatch which takes place in April, a few young broods 

 are produced late in the autumn, and Charles Anderson, Esq. 

 some time since wrote me Avord, that in 1817 a pair of Rooks 

 had a nest with eggs in a tall elm at Lea, near Gainsborough, 

 so late as the month of November. E. H. Rodd, Esq. of 

 Penzance, has also sent me word that at his father's residence 

 in Cornwall, Rooks built their nests, and hatched young 

 birds, in a warm sheltered valley near the house, in Novem- 

 ber 1836. 



Rooks, like some others of the Crow tribe, have been occa- 

 sionally tamed, and learnt to perform many amusing tricks, 

 becoming greatly attached to those who fed and protected 

 them. Mr. Hewitson has heard the Rook imitate the note 

 of the Jackdaw. Mr. Macgillivray mentions having repeat- 

 edly heard one " that imitated so remarkably well the barking 

 of several dogs in the village that, had it been placed out of 

 view, it would have been impossible to have discovered the 

 deception ;" and adds besides, that when making a visit of 

 observation to a rookery, he was surprised to hear several 

 Rooks uttering a variety of soft, clear, modulated notes, very 



