40 THE CROW FAMILY 



the bird's head from side to side, and on all three occasions by the 

 bowing and tail-fanning already noted. 1 



The energy displayed by the male rook when he walks the 

 "primrose path of dalliance" appear more often than not to be 

 regarded by the hen, if she regards it at all, with an eye of long- 

 suffering forbearance. Occasionally, as if suddenly recollecting some 

 important domestic matter, she will even quit her adorer without 

 ceremony in the midst of his courtliest bow. But it is not always 

 thus. At times she also will be filled with the divine fire. The two 

 birds may then be seen standing in loving fashion, beak to beak, or 

 beak in beak, protesting their mutual devotion with equal fervour. If 

 at these inspired moments some other male incautiously ventures too 

 near, he runs the danger of being suddenly pinned to the ground 

 and trounced till he yells again. 



But it is a common observation that the courtship of the rook 

 is accompanied by relatively few combats. This may perhaps be 

 explained by the view, generally held, that the species pairs for life, a 

 view which, as already noted in the case of the raven, need in no 

 way conflict with the fact of there being a courtship. 



Much of the quarrelling that does take place before building 

 operations have actually begun seems to arise from disputed claims 

 to old nests or sites. On one occasion I saw a pair defending an 

 old nest, a huge pile, against three or four other rooks. From time 

 to time, after an interchange of Homeric abuse, one of these would 

 fall upon the two in the nest, and there would be a confused struggle, 

 ending always in the same way, the aggressor being literally thrown 

 out and driven off. The dispute continued as long as I was present, 

 the whole party occasionally, as if in need of relaxation, quitting the 

 tree for a circular tour, after which they would again settle to the 

 matter in hand. That there should also be disputes about sites is not 

 difficult to believe, if the total pairs in the trees that form the rookery 



1 White, Selborne, Letter xliii. (Sept. 9, 1778) ; J. M. Boraston, Birds by Land and Sea, 1905, 

 p. 73 ; Annals of Scotch Natural History, i. p. 136 ; Field, 1903, ci. p. 362. 



