330 



BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



The female is, as a rule, smaller and less bril- 

 liant. 



Situation and Locality. Amongst the highest 

 branches of tall trees, in colonies or rookeries of 

 various sizes, throughout the country. I have seen 

 colonies of a dozen pairs of birds in an isolated 

 clump of ash trees away up in bleak hilly districts, 



and as a contrast to 

 this, it may be men- 

 tioned that in 1847 

 it was computed that 

 Newliston Rookery, 

 near Edinburgh, con- 

 tained no less than 

 2,663 nests. There is 

 a curious tradition 

 prevalent in different 

 parts of the country 

 to the effect that the 

 birds never establish 

 a rookery on the pro- 

 perty of a Dissenter. 

 Rooks are very fickle 

 creatures. They will 

 breed ^season by season at some well-established 

 haunt, in spite of the fact that their young ones 

 are mercilessly slaughtered every spring, and 

 yet if a few dead trees are removed from a 

 rookery they will take umbrage and desert in a 

 body. Old-established rookeries are sometimes 

 suddenly deserted without any apparent reason 

 whatever. At Thurso, where I secured the picture 

 figuring on this page, Rooks nest quite commonly 

 in chimney pots, although the neighbourhood is by 

 no means destitute of trees. 



ROOK SITTING ON HER NEST IN A 



CHIMNEY POT WITH HER MATE 



BESIDE HER. 



