52 FOREHEAD OF THE ROOK. 
bill deep into the ground. Look at this bird in the - 
pasture, through a good glass (this puts me in 
mind of the Professor’s suggestion of a thermometer 
and a stop-watch), and you will see that he 
merely pulls up the tuft of grass with the point of 
his bill. When on arable land, he will be observed 
to thrust his bill comparatively deeper into the 
‘mould, to get at the corn, which having just put up 
its narrow greenish white leaf, the searcher is di- 
rected by it to the sprouted grain. But he cannot 
be at this work above a fortnight: the progress of 
vegetation then interferes to stop the petty plun- 
derer. 
The quao of South America, a bird of the order 
of Pie, has a still greater portion of the forehead 
bare; and it must have put on this uncouth and 
naked appearance in early youth, for, on inspecting 
the head, you will see that feathers have once been 
there. 
I could never, by any chance, find this bird in 
the cultivated parts of the country. It inhabits the 
thick and gloomy forests, and feeds chiefly upon the 
fruits and seeds which grow upon the stately trees 
in those never-ending solitudes. In fine, I consider 
the accepted notion, that the rook loses the feathers 
of its forehead, and those at the base of each man- 
dible, together with the bristles, by the act of 
thrusting its bill into the ground, as a pretty little 
bit of specious theory, fit for the closet ; but which, 
in the field, “ shows much amiss.” 
For my own part I cannot account for the nudity 
