140 



RAVEN.* 



ON offering a dead bat to a tame raven, he 

 seized it with the greatest avidity, and devoured 

 every portion of it, not even rejecting the leathern 

 wing. 



ROOK.f 



FEW persons who have lived much in the neigh- 

 bourhood of an extensive rookery, as has been 

 the case with myself, have not something to say 

 in reference to the habits of these birds, which, 

 from living in large communities, strike the atten- 

 tion of the most careless observer. I am always 

 much amused in watching them of an evening as 

 they return to roost during the summer and autum- 

 nal months. After the breeding season is over, they 

 seem for a while to desert their nest-trees entirely, 

 and for a few weeks we see none there, except per- 

 haps two or three stray individuals, by night or by 

 day. But about the end of June a few begin to 

 return home in the evening, and the numbers con- 

 tinually increase during July, August, and Septem- 

 ber, till at length the air is almost darkened by the 

 collected multitudes winding homewards at the de- 

 cline of day. { The regularity, and I may say punctu- 

 ality, with which they return is very surprising. 



* Corvus corax, Linn. f C.frugilegus, Linn. 



$ It is generally stated in ornithological works, that rooks do 

 not return to their nest-trees till the autumn. But what I have 



