178 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



Heads of Rook and Crow. 



observation made by M. Daubenton, who saw six 

 of these birds in an uncultivated field very busy 

 lifting and turning over the scattered stones in order 

 to get at the worms and insects underneath, and so 

 briskly did they work that they made the smaller 

 stones spring two or three feet. M. Montbeillard 

 adds, that " straggling feathers are perceived at the 

 base of the rook's bill, a sufficient proof that the 

 bird is not naturally bald*." 



A bird found at the Cape of Good Hope by M. 

 Vaillant, so closely resembled the rook in size and 

 colour, that he was disposed to consider it the same 

 species, the only observable difference being in having 

 the base of the bill covered with feathers. " Probably,'' 

 says the author, " because it finds in this part of the 

 world more abundant provision, and is not therefore 

 forced to thrust its beak into the ground in search 

 thereof. I am myself," he adds, " very much disposed 

 to believe that it is friction alone which produces the 

 callosity on the head of the rook ; for I have in 



* Oiseaux, Art, Le Freux. 



