ROOKS. 221 



immediate use, and then desert them for the Winter ; 

 no reason has been discovered for this singular habit, 

 peculiar, it is believed, to Rooks. May it not probably 

 arise from an instinctive feeling, that as the nests will 

 be wanted early in the Spring, a few repairs may be 

 requisite to strengthen and prevent their being shattered 

 or blown to pieces by the storms of Winter ; and that, 

 according to the homely preverb of " the stitch in time 

 saving nine," they may thus be saving themselves a 

 greater degree of labour than they could easily bestow, 

 when the trees are again to be occupied ? Most other 

 birds are under no necessity of looking after these 

 autumnal repairs, as they do not use the same old nests, 

 but build entirely new ones. 



Rooks, we have seen, will occasionally remove, and 

 colonize other situations at a distance from their late 

 frequented abodes ; and, as some persons may wish to 

 establish a rookery in their own immediate neighbour- 

 hood, it has been said, that by looking out for a Magpie's 

 nest near the wished-for spot, and exchanging her eggs 

 for those of a Rook, the desirable point may be accom- 

 plished ; the young Rooks having no other associations 

 than those of the tree in which they were bred, and 

 being sure of a harsh reception, if not of being picked 

 to death, if venturing to join any neighbouring rookery 

 In which they have no family connexions. In the Spring 

 of 1847, a rather singular strife took place between the 

 Rooks which for many years occupied a large tree in the 

 garden of Westhill Terrace, Sheffield, and a pair of 

 stranger Rooks which had established themselves on a 

 neighbouring tree, illustrative of the jealousy entertained 

 by these birds, of interlopers not immediately belonging 

 to their own clan. The stranger birds had almost com- 

 pleted their nest, when their neighbours, disapproving 

 of a new or rival colony, watched their opportunity, and 

 descending in a body, wreaked their vengeance on the 

 nest, which they soon destroyed. Several times was 

 this scene repeated ; at length, however, profiting by 



