The Rook. 181 



populous city. In fact, if they can find suitable 

 nest-trees, where they are free from disturbance, 

 and feeding-grounds within a reasonable distance, 

 crowds, the roar of traffic, and even London 

 smoke, are utterly ignored by them. A better 

 instance of this cannot be adduced than the fact 

 that rooks still build in considerable numbers 

 so near the centre of London as the gardens in 

 Gray's-inn, though these gardens are situated in 

 the midst of a densely populated and most busy 

 neighbourhood, and the traffic in the surrounding 

 streets is as heavy as any in London. 



The builder is, without doubt, the London 

 rook's greatest enemy, as not only has he, within 

 the last half-century, destroyed several rookeries 

 within the four-mile radius, but by continually 

 covering with buildings their former feeding- 

 grounds, and therefore increasing the labour of 

 providing food for their young, he is making life 

 in London more difficult for those birds whose 

 nesting-places are, at all events for the present, 

 beyond his reach. The builder, however, is not 

 wholly to blame, as the decay of the trees was, so 

 far as we are aware, the sole cause of the 

 rooks deserting their ancient nesting-places in 

 Kensington Gardens, where certainly within the 

 last quarter of a century there were three large 

 rookeries. 



Some people imagine that this desertion was 

 caused by the increased traffic through the Gardens, 

 and by the large number of buildings that sprang 



