322 OBSERVATIONS ON 



none is to be found in the combs of wasps. Birds of prey occa- 

 sionally feed on insects ; thus have I seen a tame kite picking up 

 the female ants full of eggs with much satisfaction. 



ROOKS. 



Rooks are continually fighting and pulling each others' nests to 

 pieces : these proceedings are inconsistent with living in such close 

 community. And yet if a pair offers to build on a single tree, the 

 nest is plundered and demolished at once. Some rooks roost on 

 their nest-trees. The twigs which the rooks drop in building 

 supply the poor with brushwood to light their fires. Some un- 

 happy pairs are not permitted to finish any nest till the rest have 

 completed their building. As soon as they get a few sticks to- 

 gether, a party comes and demolishes the whole. As soon as 

 rooks have finished their nests, and before they lay, the cocks 

 begin to feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a fondling 

 tremulous voice and fluttering wings, and all the little blandish- 

 ments that are expressed by the young, while in a helpless state. 

 This gallant deportment of the males is continued through the 

 whole season of incubation. These birds do not copulate on trees, 

 nor in their nests, but on the ground in open fields. 



THRUSHES. 



Thrushes during long droughts are of great service in hunting 

 out shell-snails, which they pull in pieces for their young, and are 

 therefore very serviceable in gardens. Missel thrushes do not 

 destroy the fruit in gardens like the other species of turdi, but 

 feed on the berries of misseltoe, and in the spring on ivy berries, 

 which then begin to ripen. In the summer, when their young 

 become fledged, they leave neighbourhoods, and retire to sheep 

 walks and wild commons. 



The magpies, when they have young, destroy the broods of 

 missel thrushes, though the dams are fierce birds, and fight boldly 

 in defence of their nests. It is probably to avoid such insults, 

 that this species of thrush, though wild at other times, delights 

 to build near houses, and in frequented walks and gardens. 



