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tree which presents a favourable site for its construction. 

 Other trees which grow near the shore are likewise occa- 

 sionally selected. It seldom breeds in England, though 

 not uncommon with us in winter; but in the north of 

 Scotland it is a permanent resident throughout the year. 

 The eggs, four or five in number, greatly resemble those of 

 the Carrion Crow and Rook, being green, varied with mark- 

 ings of greenish-brown. (PI. IV. fig. 17.) 



THE ROOK. Corvus frugilegus. The Eook prefers cul- 

 tivated districts, and decreases in numbers towards the north 

 of Great Britain. It is gregarious in its habits, and its 

 breeding- stations are generally in the vicinity of some man- 

 sion or human habitation, where it compensates for any 

 consumption of grain or roots on its part by the extensive 

 destruction of slugs and grubs ; indeed it is asserted that 

 wherever its extirpation has been effected, the most serious 

 injury to the corn and other crops has invariably followed. 

 Mr. Hewitson says, " I remember once having pointed out 

 to me by a farmer who lives near Alnwick, one of his fields 

 which was then black with Books; and, to prove to me the 

 mischief they were doing him, he led me to the spot. It 

 was a grassfield, and sure enough the place bore evidence 

 of destruction ; its lovely green was gone, and scarcely a 



G 



