BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



some individual rooks retain through life the 

 feathers normally missing, but that several 

 of the rook's cousins dip into Nature's larder 

 in the same fashion without suffering any 

 such loss. However, the featherless patch on 

 the rook's cheeks suffices, whatever its cause, 

 as a mark by which to recognise the bird 

 living or dead. 



Unlike its cousin the jackdaw, which com- 

 monly nests in the cliffs, the rook is not, 

 perhaps, commonly associated with the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood of the sea, but a 

 colony close to my own home in Devonshire 

 displays sufficiently interesting adaptation 

 to estuarine conditions to be worth passing 

 mention. Just in the same way that gulls 

 make free of the wireworms on windswept 

 ploughlands, so in early summer do the old 

 rooks come sweeping down from the elms on 

 the hill that overlooks my fishing ground and 

 take their share of cockles and other muddy 

 fare in the bank uncovered by the falling tide. 

 Here, in company with gulls, turnstones, and 

 other fowl of the foreshore, the rooks strut 

 importantly up and down, digging their 

 powerful bills deep in the ooze and occasion- 

 46 



