The Rook. 185 



An instance of this occurred in Kensington 

 in 1885, when a pair of birds, no doubt from the 

 rookery in Holland Park, built their nest in a tall 

 plane-tree not far from the parish church; but no 

 sooner was it complete than they deserted it. 

 All, however, are not so vacillating, and often they 

 continue to rear their young from year to year 

 far from any of their kind. 



Many cases are on record of these birds making 

 choice of such unusual positions for their nests 

 as the vanes on the spires of churches or 

 public buildings. One well-known instance which 

 occurred in London may be cited we refer to the 

 case of the birds which early in the century built 

 between the wings of the dragon forming the 

 vane of Bow Church. They were dispossessed 

 when the vane was repaired, but removed to a 

 plane-tree at the corner of Wood-street, Cheapside, 

 where they continued to nest for many years, and 

 became one of the sights of London, or at least of 

 the City. 



It would be impossible within the limits of this 

 article to give even an outline of the history of 

 the rookeries of London, as during the early years 

 of tho century London was comparatively a small 

 city, and abounded in trees, and consequently 

 rooks were as common as they are now in most 

 of our provincial towns. When London began to 

 spread, as it did with marvellous rapidity about 

 the middle of the century, the rook, finding 

 its home destroyed, gradually withdrew to the 



