36 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



raids by carrion-crows and other non-social mem- 

 bers of the family Corvidae are common, and are 

 sometimes so successful, in spite of the strength of 

 unity, that the rookery is deserted. It looks as 

 if the rooks were not very good fighters, though 

 they do to herons what carrion-crows, hoodies, and 

 ravens do to them. Perhaps, for all we know, it 

 was some weakness or softness of character that led 

 rooks to become the most social of European birds, 

 for apart from the jackdaws, which are so often 

 their satellites, the other members of the race to 

 which they belong are solitaries and individualists. 

 When the three to five eggs hatch, the parents 

 have to be busier than ever, for the appetite of the 

 young birds is large. Big mouthfuls of grubs and 

 wireworms and the like are brought in, making a 

 pouch-like bulging below the tongue; and at this 

 time the rooks do so much in the farmer's interests 

 that we should not be too hard on them for their 

 depredations at other times. In his splendid 

 British Bird Book Mr. Kirkman quotes from Mr. 

 Phil Robinson the interesting observation that, to 

 begin with, the male bird gives the food only to 

 the female, who passes it on " doubly peptonized to 

 the babies/' and that later on both parents feed the 

 young. " But it is most extraordinary to notice 

 how the young accept it from the father without 

 any demonstration, sometimes in complete silence, 

 while every time the mother approaches they lift 

 up their voices in a chorus of jubilation." One 

 would like to hear more of this matter. Every one 



