PLATE I 

 ROOK. Corvus frugilegus 



April 2oth, 1897. The nests in the Plate were built in an ash-tree, on the 

 point of Arn-Mak, at the Lake of Monteith. Just beside the ash-tree was 

 a tall Scotch fir, the top of which was a solid mass of old Rooks' nests 

 covered with a fine crop of grass. On the top of this platform I set up my 

 camera on its legs, each leg resting in a nest, and took my photographs 

 quite easily. 



Through the branches of the tree may be seen the Lake Hotel and the 

 Church and Manse on the far side of the lake, and in the bottom left-hand 

 corner appears the stern of my boat drawn up on the shore. 



I took the contents of the four nests in the Plate on three different 

 occasions and was surprised at the different character of the eggs at each 

 successive laying. The first time I took the eggs they were all bluish green 

 in ground-colour, thickly spotted and blotched with greenish brown ; the second 

 laying was pale bluish white in ground-colour with very few markings, which 

 partook mostly of the Character of streaks ; most of the eggs in the third 

 laying were nearly white in ground-colour, with pale grey underlying markings 

 and a few faint specks of dark brown. 



VOL. in. 2 A 89 



