THE ROOK'S BILL. 299 



I lemember, some fifteen years ago, when I was very anxious to 

 divert a footpath which had become an intolerable nuisance, the 

 farmers in the district said that I should freely have their goodwill 

 to do so, provided I would only destroy a large rookery in a neigh- 

 bouring wood. On the other hand, the villagers deplored this pro- 

 posed destruction, as it would deprive them of their annual supply 

 of about two thousand young rooks. Now the gardener abominated 

 them. He called them a devouring set, said that they s'poiled all 

 the tops of the trees, and that, for his part, he hoped they would all 

 of them get their necks broken. I myself, for divers reasons, was 

 extremely averse to sign their death-warrant. Were I not fearful of 

 being rebuked by grave and solemn critics, I would here hazard a 

 small quotation : 



" Mulciber in Trojam, pro Troja stabat Apollo ; 

 Venus Teucris, Pallas iniqua fuit." 



However, at present, it is not my intention to write the life of the 

 rook, or even to inquire incidentally into its vices or its virtues. I 

 merely take up the pen to-day to show that the nudity on the fore 

 head of the rook, and at the base of both mandibles, cannot be 

 caused by the bird's thrusting its bill into the ground. 



Bewick is the only one in Professor Rennie's long and fanciful 

 list of " rudimental naturalists," " literary naturalists," and " philo- 

 sophic naturalists and original observers," who gives us anything 

 satisfactory concerning this nudity. He, sensible naturalist, cuts the 

 knot through at one stroke, by telling us that it is an "original 

 peculiarity." Montagu says that it is acquired by the bird's " habit 

 of thrusting its bill into the ground after worms and various insects." 

 From the study of Professor Rennie this error is renewed to the 

 public, in the Second Edition of the " Ornithological Dictionary." 

 Let us look into this error. 



Every observer of birds must know, that when the young rook 

 leaves its nest for good and all there is no part of its head deficient 

 in feathers. Before winter this young bird loses the feathers on the 

 forehead, under the bill, and at the base of both mandibles. The 

 skin where these feathers grew puts on a white scurfy appearance. 

 Now, if these feathers had been worn down to the stumps by means 



