298 THE ROOK'S BILL. 



a few : CARRION CROW sometimes gregarious. On the nth of 

 January 1830, I counted fifty carrion crows going to roost. 



Sept. 5, 1850. This afternoon, I observed carrion crows keeping 

 company with rooks for the first time this season. 



Oct. 16, 1850. Counted fifty-five carrion crows congregated in the 

 park. 



On the ist of March 1851, at half-past five in the afternoon, I 

 counted, with the aid of the telescope, sixty-four carrion crows (not 

 rooks) at the water's edge just below the echo. 



May n, 1853. Seventy or eighty carrion crows congregated in 

 the park, and were very vociferous. 



Dec. 15, 1863. The carrion crows have now congregated here for 

 the winter. This evening I counted more than a hundred of them 

 preparing to roost in the park for the night. Jenny Wren was in 

 fine song. 



THE ROOK'S BILL. 



" Quse causa indigna serenes 

 Fsedavit vultus, aut cur hoec nuda patescunt ? " 



I HAVE more than once nearly made up my mind to sit me down, 

 some dismal winter's evening, and put together a few remarks on the 

 habits of the rook. His regular flight in congregated numbers over 

 my house in the morning to the west, and his return at eve to the 

 east, without the intermission of one single day, from the autumnal 

 to the vernal equinox, would be a novel anecdote in the page of his 

 biography. To this might be added an explanation of the cause of 

 his sudden descent from a vast altitude in the heavens, which takes 

 place with such amazing rapidity that it creates a noise similar to 

 that of a rushing wind. His mischief and his usefulness to mankind 

 might be narrowly looked into, and placed in so clear a light, that 

 nobody could afterwards have a doubt whether this bird ought to be 

 protected as a friend to a cultivated country, or banished from it as 

 a depredating enemy. 



