THE HOODED CROW. 249 



grounds of the two species are defined by singularly precise 

 limits, the neighbourhood of Chichester being frequented 

 by the Carrion Crow, that of Brighton by its congener. 

 It is abundant on the sea-coast of Norfolk in the winter, 

 where I have seen it feeding with Gulls, Plovers, &c. In 

 musical capabilities it is inferior even to its relative, its 

 solitary croak being neither so loud nor so clear. The nest 

 of the Hooded Crow, according to Macgillivray, is "large, 

 composed of twigs, sea-weeds, heath, feathers and straws, 

 and is always placed on a rock." It usually contains five 



THE ROOK. 



CORVUS FRUGILEGUS. 



Plumage black, with purple and violet reflections ; base of the beak, nostrils, 

 and region round the beak bare of feathers and covered with a white scurf; 

 iris greyish white ; beak and feet black. Length eighteen inches ; breadth 

 three feet. Eggs pale green, thickly blotched with olive and dark brown. 



As the Hooded Crow is essentially the type of the Corvidse 

 in Scandinavia and the Isles of Scotland, where the Carrion 

 Crow and Eook are all but unknown, so in England the 

 representative of the tribe is the Rook, a bird so like the 

 Crow that it is called by its name almost as frequently as 

 by its own, yet so different in habits that, instead of being 

 under a perpetual and universal ban, it is everywhere 

 encouraged and indeed all but domesticated. There are 

 few English parks that do not boast of their rookery, and 

 few proprietors of modern demesnes pretending to be 

 parks, who would not purchase at a high price the air of 

 antiquity and respectability connected with an established 

 colony of these birds. Owing to their large size and the 

 familiarity with which they approach the haunts of men, 

 they afford a facility in observing their habits which 

 belongs to no other birds ; hence all treatises on Natural 

 History, and other publications which enter into the details 



