88 BRITISH BIRDS, THEIR EGGS AND NESTS. 
presence of a Rook’s nest, or several, in very unlikely situations. 
In the country some of the most familiar sights and sounds are 
those afforded by the Rookery, or by the huge assemblages of 
Rooks about the fields or winging their morning or evening 
flight in quest of food, or in return to their domiciles. Most of 
us too have heard of Rook courts of justice, and the sentences 
awarded against the wrongful spoilers of a neighbour’s nest, as well 
as the battles to resist such an invasion. It is certainly a remark- 
able instinct, which, to so great a degree, forbids birds building 
in communities to plunder the building materials placed on the 
adjoining bough or ledge, and no wonder that Instinct has 
provided a remedy for what must be looked upon, when it occurs 
to any extent, as a somewhat unnatural offence. The Rook 
resorts to the same nest year after year, merely making such 
repairs as a year’s wear and tear from wind and rain and accident 
have rendered necessary. When the nest is ready, four or five 
eges are deposited, of a greenish ground-colour more or less 
intense in shade, plentifully mottled and blotched with darker 
and varying shades of brownish green. Many of the eggs 
strongly resemble those of the Crow, while others are much 
more like those of the Jackdaw. As in the case of the Bullfinch 
the Rock is often blamed for doing mischief which was really 
done by the creature which formed the real object of search to 
the supposed offender. The wireworm and the grub of the 
cockchafer do infinite damage in grass or cornfields by eating off 
the roots of the plants in question. The Rook pulls up these 
ruined plants and eats the offending larva. The farmer or 
superficial “observer only sees the dead grass or corn plant, and 
loolishly accuses the Rook, and persecutes him, though in reality 
a friend and benefactor, tothe death. Not but what the Rook does 
mischief at times; for I have often seen newly sown corn-fields 
