FOREHEAD OF THE ROOK. 51 
I request the reader to bear in mind, that these 
arguments are brought forward only under the ac- 
cepted supposition of naturalists, that the feathers 
are removed by the process of the bird thrusting its 
bill into the ground. But he who examines the 
subject with attention will at once see that the 
process itself could not destroy the feathers on the 
head of the rook; because, if they were destroyed 
by this process, the carrion crow, the jackdaw, the 
jay, the magpie, and the starling would all exhibit a 
similar nudity on the forehead, and at the base of 
the bill; for they all thrust their bills into the 
ground proportionably as deep as the rooks do 
theirs, when in quest of worms and grubs. More- 
over, if the feathers are eradicated by the act of 
thrusting the bill into the ground, they would be 
succeeded by new ones, during the time in which 
that act could not be put in execution ; for example, 
during a very dry summer, or during a very hard 
winter ; and at these periods, as no action on the 
part of the rook would operate to destroy the coming 
feathers, an evident change would soon be observed 
about the head of the bird. In 1814, the ground 
was so very hard frozen, and covered with snow for 
some months, that the rooks could not by any 
means have an opportunity of thrusting their bills 
into it. Still, during this protracted period of frost, 
I could not see a solitary instance of renewal of 
the feathers on the forehead, or at the base of the 
bill, in the many birds which I examined. 
I deny that the rook does, in general, thrust his 
EZ 
