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insects lurking within these recesses. Food of larger size (cherries, 

 grasshoppers) is easily cut up by the sharp edges of the beak. The nest, 

 like that of all birds breeding in holes, is an untidy structure. (Compare 

 with it that of the chaffinch, etc.) Its eggs, however, are of light blue 

 colour, a token that its ancestors built open nests, as in the absence of 

 a convenient cavity it occasionally does itself. As holes in trees are often 

 wanting, people frequently provide artificial nest-places for these birds 

 (starling-boxes). The young birds, when fledged, unite with many others 

 of their species in large flocks, which rove about over fields and meadows. 

 In autumn the starlings of a district assemble every evening, and take up 

 their quarters for the night in the reeds of a pond or lake. At the end 

 of October, in Germany, they take their departure. 



Family 9 : Crows (Corvidae). 



The Rook (Con-us frugilegus). 



(Length 17 inches.) 



This familiar bird, with its glossy blue-black plumage, selects for its 

 habitat fertile plains interspersed with small woods, the latter providing 

 suitable conditions for nesting. The nests are constructed of dry sticks, 

 and several of them are found in every tree of the rookery. At the 

 breeding season the air is filled with the deafening noise of these birds. 



(Describe the sound of 

 their voice.) The habit 

 of the rook of living in 

 societies efficiently pro- 

 tects it against the attacks 

 of falcons, hawks, etc. 

 The bird seeks its food 

 principally in the field. 

 It is omnivorous in its 

 diet, picking up scattered 

 grains and digging up the 

 y oun g sprouting seeds 

 from the soil ; it also 

 HEAD or ROOK. plunders the pea -fields, 



but at the same time 



destroys enormous quantities of insect larvae, slugs, and mice, and 

 occasionally also a leveret or partridge. It is also very fond of carrion 

 (hence explain the name " gallows-bird," applied to this species and its 

 nearest relatives). As in most animals, however, the utility of this bird 



