UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 261 



does not imply honesty towards each other ; for 

 when a pair are constructing their nest, one 

 always remains to guard it while the other goes 

 in search of materials, lest it might be pillaged by 

 the neighbouring rooks. Frederick and I observed 

 a transaction of this nature to-day ; and it caused 

 a great uproar, for the crime is always punished 

 by expelling the thieves from the society. 



White of Selborne says, they depart on foraging 

 excursions in the morning, and return in the 

 evening ; and that, after the young have taken 

 wing, there is a general desertion of the nest 

 trees ; but he says the families return in October, 

 to repair their dwellings. 



Among their favourite food is the grub of the 

 chaffer-beetle, which, if allowed to multiply, 

 would lay waste the corn-fields and meadows ; 

 and yet how many mistaken people accuse these 

 poor rooks of doing mischief ! 



Frederick contrived to get one of them to shew 

 me, that I might know how to distinguish them 

 from other species of the crow family. The rook 

 is black, tail somewhat rounded, plumage glossy, 

 the bill is more straight and slender, and its base 

 is encircled by a naked white skin which is scaly, 

 and takes the place of those black projecting 

 feathers or bristles, which, in the other species of 

 crow, extend as far as the opening of the nos- 

 trils. 



Rooks, I am told, are birds of passage in 



