BIRD LIFE 249 



assigned to the Passeres, on the ground of higher 

 development of brain. 



That the London Sparrow, at least, has no hesitation 

 in assuming his rights is proved by the story already 

 told of one of the tribe who, without hesitation or 

 apology, pulled a feather for her nest in St. James's 

 Park from an indignant Wood Pigeon. 



With Rooks, too, which belong to the same order, if 

 only half the stories told of their well-ordered common- 

 wealths and rigidly-enforced laws, etc., are true, the 

 position which anatomists have assigned to them as 

 birds of a high order of intelligence is amply justified 

 on other grounds than bones and nerves. 



The following was given to the writer as a fact, for 

 the truth of which he could vouch, by a general officer 

 of repute, who had then lately returned from a visit to 

 a friend hi whose park it had occurred. A gentleman, 

 who had succeeded to a property in Dorsetshire, was 

 anxious to people a clump of his ancestral elms with a 

 rookery. Having found three or four Jackdaws' nests 

 in unusually exposed situations, he obtained as many 

 clutches of Rooks' eggs from the nearest colony some 

 miles off, and put them in the place of the Jackdaws' 

 eggs, which he removed. His hope was that the Rooks, 

 if reared at the place, might return there to nest, and 

 that thus a rookery might be established. With one 

 exception the birds deserted; but one pair accepted 

 the change, and the eggs were hatched off. Feathers 

 had already shown themselves on the young birds, and 

 the experiment was promising success, when a small 



