96 CORVIDJ;. 



described, by their habits of constantly living in flocks 

 together at all seasons of the year, and further evincing 

 the sociability of their dispositions by appearing to prefer 

 situations in the immediate vicinity of the abodes of man. 

 There are not wanting instances where long-established 

 rookeries near a mansion have been deserted by these birds, 

 when it has happened that the house has been pulled down, 

 or even abandoned as a habitation. 



Their partiality to building their nests on any trees suffi- 

 ciently lofty, that are occasionally to be found in various 

 parts of crowded cities, must have been observed, not only 

 in London, but elsewhere. In the spring of 1838, a pair of 

 Rooks began to form a nest on the crown which surmounts 

 the vane of St. Olave's church, in Hart Street, Crutched 

 Friars ; many persons will remember the nest built on a 

 single and not very lofty tree near the corner of Wood 

 Street and Cheapside, in the season of 1836, and two nests 

 were built and occupied in the year 1845. Some years 

 since a pair built their nest between the wings of the 

 dragon of Bow Church, and remained there till the steeple 

 required repairs. In the gardens of two noblemen in 

 Curzon Street, May Fair, a considerable number of Rooks 

 have built for many years, and these probably received an 

 addition at the destruction of the rookery in the gardens 

 of Carlton House. Mr. Blackwall has recorded in the 

 Zoological Journal, that three pairs of Rooks built on 

 some low black Italian poplars in a central part of the 

 town of Manchester, and returned to the same place the 

 following year. Mr. Bewick has noticed the nest of a pair 

 of Rooks which was built on the top of the vane of the 

 Exchange, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; and though the nest 

 and its inhabitants were turned about with every change of 

 wind, it was tenanted for ten successive seasons till the 

 spire was taken down ; and Mr. Macgillivray mentions 



