274 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



himself during several years : " A very numerous colony 

 of rooks, inhabiting the woods at Gunton, which is 

 about four miles distant from the sea, I have carefully 

 marked for twelve years, uniformly returning home a 

 few minutes before sun -set, from the same point of 

 destination namely, the coast, and making the church 

 of Southrepps the land mark by which they steered. 

 What has surprised me is, that this course has been 

 continued through the very height of the breeding 

 season, as well as at other times, though in diminished 

 numbers ; and that the only interruption to it has been 

 during the severe days of winter, when they were driven 

 by that necessity which acknowledges neither rule nor 

 law, to seek their subsistence in farm yards, or to 

 plunder the corn stacks in the fields." 



The singular scurfy looking white skin, which in 

 old rooks surrounds the base of the bill, and is com- 

 monly looked upon as the chief specific difference 

 between the rook and the crow, has long formed a 

 subject of discussion amongst naturalists, some contend- 

 ing that it is the result of abrasion, from boring in the 

 ground after worms and grubs, others that it is simply 

 a natural effect, or, in other words, a specific peculiarity 

 for which even the most learned ornithologist may find 

 no better reason than that it pleased God to make it 

 so. I have long held the latter opinion, and have of 

 late been more than ever confirmed in that impression 

 from the number of instances I have known of rooks, 

 from eight to twelve months old, at least, in full 

 plumage and perfect health, retaining in a wild state 

 the nasal bristles, observable in young birds, without 

 the slightest abrasion of the feathers, either above or 

 below the beak. The great scarcity of carrion-crows in 

 these parts, has led to my observing more particularly 

 these black-faced rooks, which, in my search for a 

 specimen of the rarer bird, have more than once 



