THE ROOK AND JACKDAW 29 



stifling habitations of the dregs of human society, a singular abuse 

 of language, for the rook has at least sense enough to realise that 

 plenty of fresh air is essential to the well-being of its race. 



Again, unlike their larger congeners, which usually betake them- 

 selves in spring to the most inaccessible spots they can find, the 

 jackdaw and the rook prefer to rear their broods in the close neigh- 

 bourhood of man, the one liking best the ruined castle or the 

 cathedral tower, and the other the stately trees that have stood from 

 time immemorial near by some ancient hall or village spire. Rookeries 

 are not unknown in towns, as Gray's Inn will testify, but no doubt in 

 most of these cases it is not the rooks that have gone to the town, but 

 the town that has come to the rooks. 



There is, further, a marked difference between the feeding habits 

 of the two groups. The raven and crows usually look for their food 

 on the wing, tracing irregular circuits through the air, and descending 

 to the ground when something worthy of closer investigation has 

 caught their quick eyes. The rook and the jackdaw, on the other 

 hand, are most often seen diligently walking the ploughed land or the 

 pasture, probing for worms and other delicacies. It is possibly the 

 fact that their favourite food can be found in abundance within an 

 area no larger than a single field that has led them to become so 

 much more gregarious than the other members of the family. Certain 

 it is that when frost or snow seal up ^the earth, and with it the worms, 

 the rook flocks tend to split up into detachments and disperse. The 

 birds are often to be found perched disconsolate on some post or 

 paling not far from the doors of our kitchens, ready to share the 

 charity dispensed to the smaller birds, and also to waylay and rob 

 them, thus providing a concrete illustration of the meaning of the 

 expressive verb they have added to the English language. 



The remaining differences between the two groups are incidental 

 to those mentioned. We may now, therefore, come to closer quarters 

 with the immediate subjects of this section. 



For nine months in the year, that is during the whole period outside 



