ROOKS. 203 



cessity of looking after these autumnal repairs, as they do not 

 use the same old nests, but build entirely new ones. 



Books, we have seen, will occasionally remove, and colonize 

 other situations at a distance from their late frequented 

 abodes; and, as some persons may wish to establish a rookery 

 in their own immediate neighbourhood, it has been said, that 

 by looking out for a Magpie's nest near the wished-for spot, 

 and exchanging her eggs for those of a Rook, the desirable 

 point may be accomplished; the young Rooks having no 

 other associations than those of the tree in which they were 

 bred, and being sure of a harsh reception, if not of being 

 picked to death, if venturing to join any neighbouring rookery 

 in which they have no family connexions. In the Spring of 

 1847, a rather singular strife took place between the Rooks 

 which for many years occupied a large tree in the garden of 

 Westhill Terrace, Sheffield, and a pair of stranger Rooks 

 which had established themselves on a neighbouring tree, 

 illustrative of the jealousy entertained by these birds, of in- 

 terlopers not immediately belonging to their own clan. The 

 stranger birds had almost completed their nest, when their 

 neighbours, disapproving of a new or rival colony, watched 

 their opportunity, and descending in a body, wreaked their 

 vengeance on the nest, which they soon destroyed. Several 

 times was this scene repeated ; at length, however, profiting 

 by experience, it was deemed advisable for one of the birds to 

 remain constantly at the nest, to repel any attempts that 

 might be made upon it by their enemies. So rigorously, in- 

 deed, was this caution observed, that the one remaining at 

 home was supplied with food by the other. Many attempts 

 were, notwithstanding, made upon it, but the united energies 

 of these two persevering birds enabled them to rear their 

 nestlings in spite of the determined opposition of the original 

 possessors of the adjacent rookery. 



The habits of a Jackdaw are known to everybody; where- 

 ever found, he is the same active, bustling, cheerful, noisy 

 fellow. Whether in the depth of a shady wood, " remote 

 from cities and from towns," or whether established in the 

 nooks and niches of some Gothic cathedral-tower, in the 



