28 THE CROW FAMILY 



than man, having its remote origin in times that knew not civilisa- 

 tion, its guns and its gamekeepers, a time when nocturnal enemies 

 of another kind were far more abundant than now, so much so that 

 they forced the Crow tribe to seek in numbers a sense of safety 

 during the dread hours when darkness makes useless their chief 

 defence, the quick eye that sees the foe before it strikes. Such 

 enemies may have been the larger owls, for instance the eagle-owl, 

 which, as already noted, has power, even in effigy, to reduce hoodie 

 and crow to dire extremities of rage and fear. 



It is worth noting, in concluding this section, that, as in the case 

 of the raven roost previously described, the ground about the crow 

 roosts is covered with the remains of pellets that the birds have dis- 

 gorged. These contain undigested matter of all sorts, including 

 enormous quantities of seeds. In the report above quoted, it is 

 estimated that in a roost of 15 acres, nearly 800 million seeds 

 may be scattered, more than enough to plant over 1000 acres 

 thickly. Of course comparatively few grow, but as the digestion of 

 the crow is rapid, taking one to four hours, or even less, the process 

 of seed dispersal is not confined to the roost. The species can, there- 

 fore, claim to exercise a considerable influence on the distribution of 

 plants within the area it inhabits. 



THE ROOK AND JACKDAW 

 [F. B. KIRKMAN] 



The raven and the crows flock more or less except in the 

 breeding season. We now come to two species that are gregarious 

 throughout the year. The rook's habit of nesting in communities 

 is indeed so familiar that the word "rookery" has been used to 

 describe the breeding-places of other species, such as the penguin 

 and the gannet, whose names lend themselves but indifferently to a 

 suffix. It has also been applied to the close-packed, over-crowded, 



