By Mr. H. J. MOULB. 



F all the 'ologies none takes most people's fancy so 

 much as ornithology. The varied modes of life, 

 the sprightliness, the perfect form, the lovely 

 colours, the ubiquity of birds are charms only 

 partly shared by other orders of animated crea- 

 tures. Yet these orders, in their degree, excel 

 the vegetable and mineral kingdoms in attractiveness for most 

 minds. But, much as we are, for the greater part, drawn to 

 ornithology in fancy, it is a difficult study to go into thoroughly. 

 What a fund of patient endurance in keen observation and, to 

 put that faculty in practice, what a world of leisure do we 

 require. It is but one here and there who, with the best will in 

 the world, can carry it forward to a good result. Therefore it 

 seems not amiss to throw into the common stock any fragments of 

 bird lore which may occur to the mind or memory j even when the 

 contribution is so short and so triflng as mine must certainly be. 



I would say a word about rooks. There are many things worth 

 study in their ways. No one, I suppose, since Gilbert White, has 

 more carefully watched birds' habits than Jeffries. What he says 

 about rooks is very valuable. I refer to Chap. xv. of " Wild Life 

 in a Southern County." He there speaks of the vast, innumerably 

 vast, winter trysts of rooks, of their daily foraging journeys from 



