144 THE RIVER-SIDE NATURALIST. 



keepers or their masters, who probably do not know the 

 difference between the rook and the carrion crow or jack- 

 daw, both of these latter being habitual pilferers and 

 devourers of eggs and young birds. 



The late Lord Erskine was so convinced that this bird 

 was the farmer's friend, that he wrote a poem on the sub- 

 ject, in which he makes the rook address him, after the bailiff 

 had been dealing destruction on a colony of these birds : 



" Touch'd with the sharp but just appeal, 

 Well-turn'd, at least, to make me feel, 

 Instant this solemn oath I took 

 No hand shall rise against a rook." 



Rooks are very early breeders, and begin repairing their 

 nests at the first change from wintry weather. Gilbert 

 White alludes to this in his verses on the dry warm 

 weather in winter : 



" Sooth'd by the genial warmth, the cawing rook 

 Anticipates the spring, selects her mate, 

 Haunts her tall nest trees, and with sedulous care 

 Repairs her wicker eyrie tempest-torn." 



This building-time is one of constant flurry and excite- 

 ment, of battles and of thefts. The propensity to thieving 

 is at this time made remarkably evident. The old birds 

 are well aware of this, and never leave the nest unguarded. 

 But mark what happens to a pair of young birds entering 

 for the first time on their domestic duties. Too confident 

 in the honesty of, perhaps, their own parents, building close 

 by them, they both leave the nest to procure materials ; 

 and when they return, where is their loved dwelling? All 

 has disappeared ; the wily old birds have robbed them of 

 every stick. 



This custom of the old birds was noticed by Ray, who, 

 writing in 1776, says: "I have been told by a worthy 

 gentleman of Sussex, who himself observed it, that when 

 rooks build, one of the pair always remains to watch the 

 nest, else if both go, their fellow-rooks ere they return will 

 have robbed and carried away all the sticks and whatever 

 else they had put together ; " and he pertinently adds : 



