150 BRITISH AND EUROPEAN BIRDS. 



Sweet sounds ! that of home, and of parents, and 



THEE, 



Will ever be thought of with rapture by me. 



entitled the Rookery, in my Somerset Dialect. This bird, and 

 the Crow particularly, distinguished by their cawing. 



Mr. Coleridge, in a poem addressed to Mr. C. Lamb, and 

 published in the second volume of the Annual Anthology ^ edited 

 at Bristol by Mr. Southey, in 1800, alludes to the creaking of 

 tjbe wings of this bird when it flies : 



" The Rook — when all was still, 

 Flew creaking o'er thy bead." 



I think that I have occasionally observed this noise of *he 

 Rook. In a note to the poem, Bartram is quoted as having 

 noticed the same fact in the Savannah Crane : as far as I re- 

 member in regard to the Rook, the noise occurs, principally, 

 when the bird is heavily laden with materials for its nest, or 

 contending against the wind. 



The late Lord Erskine wrote a Poem on the Rook, which 

 was printed and privately circulated some years since. I have 

 never seen it; I presume it deserves publicity. 



SoMERviLE thus sings of the Rook ; 



. .Mii/fiWhen feather'd troops, their social leagues dissolv'd, 



!t)y^i Select Iheir mates, and on the leafless elm, 



:.'ii: Tj^The noisy Jioo/c builds high her wicker nest." 



1, .; Chase, Book iv. 



The Coraxy or Raven, is black, or bluish black ; but there 

 are several varieties; some with a few scattered white feathers, 

 some entirely white, and others variegated with black and 

 white ; inhabits Europe, North America, New Spain, and is 

 well known in this country. Two feet two inches long ; makes 



