ROOK. 24 I 



of any station existing in a retired or secluded 

 region of forest, or indeed of any which has not 

 a mansion of one kind or other, baronial hall, or 

 lowly cottage, within sight or hearing. The Rook 

 is at all times gregarious, and whether during 

 the season of incubation, or during winter, may 

 always be seen in large flocks feeding and roost- 

 ing together. For a breeding station or rookery, ' 

 all kinds of trees are indiscriminately used, \ 

 though it is most frequently seen among woods 

 of fir trees, or on those of beech, plane, and ash, 

 which were then most in use for planting the 

 avenues of the last and previous centuries. When 

 it happens to be chosen among deciduous trees, 

 the locality serves for a rookery only, and is 

 returned to at the proper season, almost on a 

 particular day, the premises being frequently 

 visited during the intervening time ; but when 

 placed in a wood of pines, the birds return 

 nightly to roost through the year. In the former 

 case, they resort during the winter to some pine 

 wood often many miles distant from the breeding 

 Ration, and which affords them warmth and 

 shelter. Thence at day-break they depart to their 

 feeding grounds, often visiting their breeding 

 place as they pass or repass, and remaining for a 

 short time as if examining its condition. Their , 

 flights are taken simultaneously, and having gained 

 a convenient altitude, they fly in a mixed troop 

 directly to the point intended. 



The food of the Rook consists less frequently 

 of animal matter than that of the other Crows we 

 Q 



