168 BRITISH BIRDS 



Excepting in the matter of colour one bird being wholly black 

 and the other grey on the back and under parts the black and grey 

 crows are identical in size, language, and in all their habits, and 

 what has been said of the carrion crow applies to the present species. 



Rook. 



Corvus frugilegus. 



Black with purple and violet reflections ; base of the beak, nos- 

 trils, and region round the beak bare of feathers, and covered with a 

 white scurf ; iris greyish white. Length, eighteen inches. 



The rook is common throughout the British Islands, and is our 

 best-known large land bird, being everywhere the most abundant 

 species, as well as the most conspicuous, owing to his great size, 

 blackness, gregariousness, and habits of perching and nesting on 

 the tops of trees, and of feeding on open grass spaces, where it is 

 visible at a long distance. Without being a favourite of either 

 the gamekeeper or the farmer, he is, in a measure, a protected 

 species, the rookery being looked on as a pleasant and almost in- 

 dispensable appanage of the country-house. It was not always so. 

 In former times the rook was regarded as a highly injurious bird, 

 and in the reign of Henry VIII. an Act of Parliament was passed 

 to ensure its destruction. But this is ancient history. The existing 

 sentiment, which is so favourable to the bird ,, probably had its origin 

 centuries back in time, and the rook has everywhere come to regard 

 the trees that are near a human habitation as the safest to build on. 

 It is surprising to find how fearless of man he is in this respect, 

 while retaining a suspicious habit towards him when at a distance 

 from home. I recall one rookery on a clump of fir-trees so close 

 to a large house that, from the top windows, one can look down on 

 the nests and count the eggs in many of them ; yet for miles round 

 the area is a well-wooded park, where the birds might easily have 

 found scores of sites as well or better suited to their requirements. 



The birds usually return to the rookery in February, ;m<l in 

 March, or even earlier if the weather should prove mild, they begin 

 to repair the old nests and build new ones. The nests are placed 

 on the topmost branches of the tree elm,* oak, birch, or fir ; but an 

 elm-tree is generally made choice of. The tree to suit the rook 

 must be tall if possible, the tallest tree in the place for it is the 



