THE PIOEOX.] 



EV: FIELD, WOOD, AND WATEK. 



[the pigeon. 



Rooks begin to build in INIarch ; and, nfter 

 the breeding season is over, lorsako tlieir nest- 

 ing trees, and, lor some time, roost elaewliero ; 

 but thev liavo always been observed to return 

 in August. In October, they repair their 

 nests. When the first brood of rooks are sulli- 

 ciently fledged, they all leave their nest-trees 

 ill the day-time, and resort to some distant 

 place in search of food : but return regularly 

 every evening, in vast flights, to their domi- 

 ciles ; where, after flying round several times 

 with much noise and clamour, till they are all 

 assembled together, they take up their abode 

 for the night. 



In parts of Hampshire, adjacent to the New 

 Forest, after the rook has reared its progeny, 

 and has carried off such of them as have 

 escaped the arts of men and boys, it retires 

 every evening, at a late hour, during the 

 autumn and winter months, to the closest 

 coverts of the forest, having spent the day in 

 the open fields and enclosures in quest of food. 

 Its late retreat to the forest is characteristic 

 of the near approach of night. 



" Retiring from the downs, where all day long 

 They pick their scanty fare, a black'ning train 

 Of loitering rooks thick urge their weary flight, 

 And seek the shelter of the grove." 



But although the forest may be called its 



winter habitation, it generally, every day, viaits 

 its nursery ; preserving the idea of a family, 

 which it begins to raako provision for very 

 early in the spring. 



Dr. Darwin has remarkeii, that a conscious- 

 ness of danger from umnluud is much moro 

 apparent in rooks than in most other birds. 

 Any one who has in the least attended to 

 them, will see that they evidently distinguish 

 that the danger is greater when a man is armed 

 with a gun, than when he has no weapon in 

 his hands. In the spring of the year, if a 

 person happen to walk under a rookery with 

 a gun in his hand, these inhabitants of tho 

 trees rise on their wings, and call to tho 

 unfledged young to shrink into their nests 

 from tho sight of the enemy. Tho country- 

 people, observing this circumstance so uni- 

 formly to occur, assort that rooks can smell 

 gunpowder. 



In England these birds remain during the 

 whole year; but both in France and Silesia 

 they migrate. It is said that there are no 

 rooks in the island of Jersey, although they 

 frequently fly over from Britain into France. 

 The young birds, when skinned and made 

 into pies, are much esteemed by some persons ; 

 they are, however, very coarse meat, and far 

 from being universally relished. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE PIGEON. 



Pigeons form a tribe which are considered 

 to be the connecting link between the passe- 

 rine birds and the poultry. They are much 

 dispersed over the world, some of the species 

 being found even in the arctic regions. Their 

 principal food is grain : they drink much — not, 

 however, at intervals, like other birds, but by a 

 continued draught, like quadrupeds. During 

 the breeding-time they associate in pairs, and 

 pay court to each other with their bills. The 

 female lays two eggs, and the young which are 

 produced, arc, for the most part, a male and a 



female. They usually breed more than once 

 in the year ; and the parent birds divide tho 

 labour of incubation by sitting alternately oa 

 the eggs. 



Both tho male and female assist in feeding 

 their young. This, in most of the species with 

 which we are acquainted, is done by means of 

 a substance in appearance not unlike curd, and 

 analogous to milk in quadrupeds, that is se- 

 creted in their crop. During incubation, tho 

 coats of the crop are gradually enlarged and 

 thickened, like what happous to the udders of 



595 



