THE ROOK 



CORFUS FRUGILEGUS 



LOCAL names in surrounding counties : 



STATUS IN BRITISH AVIFAUNA : A common and widely 

 distributed resident in England, Wales, and Ireland, 

 becoming more local in Scotland, although extending its 

 range there. Its numbers are increased in autumn by 

 Continental migrants. 



RADIAL DISTRIBUTION WITHIN FIFTEEN MILES OF ST. 

 PAUL'S : There is a flourishing rookery within a thousand 

 yards of St. Paul's Cathedral at the present time (1908), 

 in the historic precincts of Gray's Inn ; whilst in many 

 other parts of the Metropolis the Rook is a familiar bird. 

 A year or so ago quite a cluster of nests were built in the 

 plane-trees at Gray's Inn overhanging Theobald's Road, 

 but now the majority of the twenty-five nests are in the 

 quieter portions of the enclosure. Other rookeries are 

 studded about the more central parts of the Metropolitan 

 area ; one containing ten nests this spring is situated in 

 Connaught Square, within a hundred yards or so of the 

 Marble Arch. As we reach the more rural suburbs the 

 colonies become more numerous and extensive, the bird 

 being found breeding in every direction. It is quite a 

 familiar species in all or most of the parks, although it 

 has vanished as a breeding bird from certain localities, as, 

 for instance, near Curzon Street, Mayfair. It also "varies 

 a good deal in numbers in the more central localities. 



There are few birds that display a greater and more 

 persistent attachment to their breeding stations than the 

 Rook. Time works its vast changes in a district, and 

 country becomes town, the old nest-trees gradually 

 become surrounded by houses, yet the ancestral line of 

 Rooks remain in their old homes as year by year the green 

 fields and the feeding-grounds become more and more 



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