THE COMMON ROOK. 187 



joint operation : the grub eats the root, but not 

 often so effectually as to destroy the plant, which 

 easily roots itself anew ; but the rook finishes the 

 affair by pulling it up to get at the larvae, and 

 thus prevents all vegetation; nor do I believe 

 that the bird ever removes a specimen that has not 

 already been eaten, or commenced upon, by the 

 caterpillar. 



The rook entices its young from the breeding 

 trees, as soon as they can flutter to any other. 

 These young, for a few evenings after their flight, 

 will return with their parents, and roost where 

 they were bred ; but they soon quit their abode, 

 and remain absent the whole of the summer months. 

 As soon however as the heat of summer is sub- 

 dued, and the air of autumn felt, they return 

 and visit their forsaken habitations, and some few 

 of them even commence the repair of their shat- 

 tered nests ; but this meeting is very differently 

 conducted from that in the spring; their voices 

 have now a mellowness approaching to musical, 

 with little admixture of that harsh and noisy con- 

 tention, so distracting at the former season, and 

 seems more like a grave consultation upon future 

 procedure ; and as winter approaches they depart 

 for some other place. The object of this meeting 

 is unknown ; nor are we aware that any other 

 bird revisits the nest it has once forsaken. Do- 

 mestic fowls, indeed, make use again of their old 



