270 Birds. 



expense in getting Eooks back again. Young Rooks are 

 good eating, but should be skinned before they are 

 dressed. The colour is black, but brighter than that of 

 the crow, which the Book resembles in shape. The 

 female lays the same number of eggs; and the male 

 shares with her the trouble of fetching sticks, and inter- 

 weaving them to make the nest, an operation which is 

 attended with a great deal of fighting and disputing with 

 the other Eooks. 



New comers are often severely beaten by the old inha- 

 bitants, and are even frequently driven quite away ; of 

 this an instance occurred near Newcastle, in the year 

 1783. A pair of Eooks, after an unsuccessful attempt to 

 establish themselves in a rookery at no great distance 

 from the Exchange, were compelled to abandon the at- 

 tempt, and take refuge on the spire of that building ; and, 

 though constantly interrupted by other Eooks, they 

 built their nest on the top of tlie vane, and reared their 

 young ones, undisturbed by the noise of the populace be- 

 low. The nest and its inhabitants were of course turned 

 about by every change of the wind! They returned 

 and built their nest every year on the same place, till 

 1793, soon after which year the spire was taken down. 

 A small copperplate was engraved, of the size of a watch- 

 paper, with a representation of the spire and the nest ; 

 and so much pleased were the inhabitants and other per- 

 sons with it, that as many copies were sold as produced 

 to the engraver a profit of ten pounds. The woodcut 

 by Bewick, in the title-page to his Select Fable givess, a 

 view of the old Exchange, with the Eook's nest on the 

 vane. 



It is amusing to see Eooks coming at sunset as thick 

 as a cloud hovering over a grove, and, after several 

 eddies described in the air, and incessant cawings, each 

 repairing to its own nest, and settling in a few minutes 

 to rest, till the dawn calls them up again to their pas- 

 ture in the neighbouring fields. 



Dr. Darwin has remarked, that an instinctive feeling 

 of danger from mankind is much more apparent in Eooks 

 than in most other birds. Any one who has in the least 

 observed them will see that they evidently distinguish 



