ROOK. 151 



The following year I had brought me a young 

 rook, the plumage of which deviated from the usual 

 character as follows : Bill mostly of a pure white, 

 having only a few black spots on the upper mandi- 

 ble ; the forehead, including the feathers which fall 

 forwards over the nostrils, mottled with black and 

 white ; chin wholly white ; the first three quills on 

 the right wing with a white line running longitudin- 

 ally down each feather ; the quills on the other wing 

 not marked with this peculiarity; the first four 

 feathers on the greater wing-coverts, covering the 

 primaries, wholly of a pure white on each wing; 

 toes mottled with black and white ; nails mostly 

 pure white. All the rest of the plumage was of 

 the usual colour. 



In the spring of 1841, a completely white rook 

 was shot near Cambridge. This, and the two spot- 

 ted varieties first mentioned, are preserved in the 

 Museum of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 



On the 12th of May, 1827, we picked up a dying 

 rook at Bottisham, remarkable for a monstrosity 

 in the bill ; the upper mandible of which had grown 

 to a praeter-natural length, and passed beyond the 

 lower to the distance of nearly an inch and a half. 

 The individual was an old bird, but considerably 

 under size, and had been apparently starved, being 

 nothing but skin and bone. Doubtless the extraor- 

 dinary prolongation of the upper mandible must 

 have much interfered with the operation of grub- 

 bing, in the earth, and prevented its obtaining more 



