112 NATURAL HISTORY AND 



began to sit. An immense troop of their black 

 kindred soon surrounded them, killed the male, 

 who fell into the area, slew the female on her 

 eggs, tore off one of her wings, and all the pirates 

 disappeared as suddenly as they came, and never 

 revisited the place except, indeed, one solitary 

 spy, which flew round and round the house the 

 morning after the massacre, making a great noise. 

 The butler picked up the slain rook and the fe- 

 male's wing, while the family watched with wonder 

 the storming of the nest and the double murder. 



A gentleman living in Newbattle Terrace, at 

 the south side of Edinburgh, told me a curious 

 rook anecdote that happened last spring. Being 

 unwilling to allow a colony from a neighbouring 

 rook settlement to take possession of the old trees 

 around his house, he shot the female of the first 

 couple that built a nest on them. The widower 

 paired again directly, and brought the new mate 

 to the same house, when she shared the fate of the 

 first. The determined settler immediately took to 

 himself a third partner, and installed her into 

 the fatal lodging. After her death the rooks 

 assembled in a body, and tore down the nest. 



