54 POUCH OF THE ROOK. 
author of the second edition of Montagu was dozing 
when he deprived the rook (Corvus) of the good 
old sensible epithet frugilegus, and put that of pree- 
datorius in its place. 
ON THE SUPPOSED POUCH UNDER THE BILL 
OF THE ROOK. 
‘Nec aliud quicquaam . . . queritur, 
Quam corrigatur error ut mortalium, 
Acuatque sese diligens industria.” Phedrus. 
We read in Rennie’s Montagu’s Ornithological 
Dictionary, that “the rook is furnished with a 
small pouch at the root of the tongue.” If the 
carrion crow were as useful to man, as the rook 
is known to be ; if the jay and the magpie had less 
to answer for, on the score of petty plunder; and _ 
if the jackdaw did not expose itself to persecu- 
tion, by its prying and suspicious habits, they would 
all be allowed by man to range at large without 
molestation; and then the naturalist would have 
that opportunity of examining their economy, which 
at present is denied him. 
Amongst many peculiarities in these birds, 
scarcely known, or even noticed, he would ob- 
serve that at a certain time of the year, and only 
then, they all have, at intervals, an appearance of 
