240 



ROOK. 



ROOK, CORVUS FRUGILEGUS. Corvus frugile- 

 *?us, Linn. fyc. Common Rook of British authors. 

 We have placed the Common Rook last among 

 the British species of Crows, because it varies 

 somewhat in its gregarious habits, and by the 

 bareness of the base of its bill, which by some 

 ornithologists have been thought to be characters 

 of sufficient importance to entitle it to a place 

 generically separate. In every respect, however, 

 it is essentially a Crow, and any little differences 

 of either structure or habits will only serve to 

 connect its own group with some of those nearly 

 allied to it 



The Common Rook is perhaps more connected 

 with the park scenery of Britain than any other 

 wild bird. The huge piles of its nest which dot 

 the avenued approaches to the residences built in 

 the end of the sixteenth and in the seventeenth 

 centuries, are seen from a distance, and have a 

 marked appearance on the character of the place, 

 while the bustle and the. noise of the rookery on 

 a near approach is always interesting, and is 

 protected by the 'owners as a fitting accessory to 

 their chase or domain. In the manners of the 

 group generally, there is a familiarity which leads 

 many of its members to court the vicinity of 

 cultivation and of habitations. Few rookeries 

 exist at present far from some mansion, though 

 this may be accounted for by the prevalence of 

 the largest and finest timber occurring near the 

 residence. At the same time, we are not awa*- 



