OF HARTING. 259 



I myself have watched them year after year, as they 

 swooped down, with right good will and many angry 

 complaints, among the chattering jackdaws that ven- 

 tured to intrude on their privacy."* 



The note of the Carrion Crow (Corvus Corone), easily 

 distinguished from the rich croak of the raven and the 

 caw of the rook, is heard here occasionally throughout 

 the year, and its nest is frequently found with us ; but 

 very few individuals escape the fatal attentions of the 

 keepers. Its congener, the Hooded Crow (Corvus 

 Comix), now and then pays us a visit, but does not 

 meet with a more kindly reception. 



To say that our rooks are innumerable is almost 

 superfluous, as everyone is familiar with the fact that 

 in autumn and winter the " music of the woods " is 

 supplied almost exclusively by them, in concert with 

 the jackdaws, and that there are several well stocked 

 rookeries within a few miles of each other, two of 

 which are in the Park. This useful bird (Corvus frugi- 

 legus} in a state of maturity is destitute of feathers all 

 round the base of the bill, from which peculiarity it is 

 known in some works on Ornithology as the " Bare- 

 faced " Crow. It will not be difficult to show that he 

 is equally barefaced in another sense. Till within the 

 last few years, it had been a question with preservers 

 of game hereabouts, whether the rooks were or were 



In the early part of 1866 a furious hurricane from the south- 

 west passed over the country and uprooted hundreds of trees in 

 the Park. Unfortunately one of the latter in its fall crashed into 

 the very tree in which the ravens had established their home. 

 The destruction of their nest under such startling circumstances 

 was the last drop in the cup of the poor birds, whose ancestors 

 had experienced and disregarded the persecutions of keepers and 

 others for so many generations we have never met with their 

 nest in the Park since. It would seem, however, that even now 

 they are not quite proof against the charm of old associations, as 

 they have more than once paid us a visit extending over two or 

 three days, and their rich mellow croak, as they loudly remind 

 each other of the past, is still occasionally heard in their old 

 familiar haunts among the beech woods. 



S 2 



