XLIIL ROOK 



(Corvus frugilegus.} 



THE Rooks did not build here when we first came, but only flew 

 across the sea from Armadale on predatory excursions. At harvest 

 time they would carry off potatoes and hide them, sometimes 

 forgetting where they were buried, and leaving them to come up 

 in unexpected places the following spring. They also trans- 

 planted acorns we had sown, sometimes replacing them in a 

 more favourable spot. After we had been here for some years, 

 they began to build in the trees behind the house, and increased 

 in numbers to an extent that the corn supply could not afford, 

 and so were shot down in spring, and ceased to build here. 



They had a habit, before going to roost, of assembling them- 

 selves together in the evening on a rocky islet near the shore in 

 great numbers, and holding a parliament. Then they took a few 

 precautionary flights round about to see that all was safe before 

 retiring for the night. The Rooks here are not very fine birds, 

 nor have they so bare a place at the base of the beak as those 

 that inhabit a rich agricultural country. Perhaps they have not 

 depth enough of soil here to dig in so as to rub off the feathers. 



