ROOK. 299 



the tendency to emigration. In long-continued frosts Rooks 

 suffer severely and are often put to the last shift to preserve 

 life. Foggy weather also, as Mr. J. B. Lawes, in an obliging 

 communication, has reminded the Editor, suspends their 

 usual operations, and they will then sit for hours, moping 

 and disconsolate, on or near their roosting-places, waiting 

 for the air to clear, for they have apparently only the sense of 

 sight to guide them to their distant feeding-grounds. The 

 speed, however, with which space can he traversed when 

 occasion needs is only to be appreciated by persons who have 

 witnessed a flock of these birds escaping from a Falcon. 



Rooks, though less docile than most of the Crow-tribe, 

 can be tamed, and becoming attached to their owners will 

 learn many amusing tricks, that of imitating a variety of 

 cries and sounds among the rest. The ordinary note of the 

 Rook needs no description since it has given a word to the 

 English language, but according to the coincident action or 

 to the season of the year it has many modulations,* and 

 the soft crooning of the bird that is fondling its mate or 

 feeding its young is as different from the loud caw of the 

 same when mixing in the public life of the community as 

 sounds proceeding from one mouth well can be. Young 

 Rooks, taken from the nest, it may be remarked, should be 

 fed chiefly or wholly on animal food. Though they will readily 

 eat many vegetable products they cannot be reared on such 

 diet. New rookeries have been several times successfully 

 formed by placing Rooks' eggs in the nests of Daws, who 

 make excellent foster-parents. The young birds will then 

 generally establish themselves in or near the place of their 

 birth if it be at all suitable to their requirements. 



A large volume might easily be written on this species, 

 but even then its habits could be hardly described in full. 

 Each rookery seems to have some custom peculiarly its own. 

 In one the birds will roost in the nest-trees all the year, 

 in another they will seek their night-quarters at a great 

 distance, only visiting the rookery at certain seasons. In 



* Rooks, as Gilbert White says, "in the breeding season, attempt sometimes 

 in the gaiety of their hearts to sing, but with no great success." 



