WHITE ROOKS. 49 



Writers, copying from one another, make Aris- 

 totle say, that goats breathe at their ears, whereas 

 he asserts just the contrary: " AAtyicuwj' yap 

 OVK aXrjdr) Xeyet, (bap-tvog ava.7rvf.LV TCIQ aiyaq Kara 

 ra wra. Alcmseon does not advance what is true, 

 when he avers that goats breathe through their 

 ears." History of Animals. Book i. chap. xi. 



XV. 



SOME intelligent country people have a notion 

 that we have, in these parts, a species of the genus 

 mustelinum, besides the weasel, stoat, ferret, and 

 polecat ; a little reddish beast, not much bigger 

 than a field mouse, but much longer, which they 

 call a cane. This piece of intelligence can be 

 little depended on ; but farther inquiry may be 

 made. 



A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two 

 milk-white rooks in one nest. A booby of a | 

 carter, finding them before they were able to fly, 

 threw them down, and destroyed them, to the 

 regret of the owner, who would have been glad to 

 have preserved such a curiosity in his rookery. I 

 saw the birds myself nailed against the end of a 

 barn, and was surprised to find that their bills, 

 legs, feet, and claws, were milk-white \ 



1 The common rook, corvus fragile >gus, seems to be more 

 subject to a white variation than its other British con- 

 geners. Specimens entirely white are not often seen, but 

 individuals with parts of the wings and tail pure white, occur 

 in almost every rookery. A pair of magpies, entirely of a 

 cream colour, were hatched at a farm-steading in Eskdale, 

 Dumfries-shire, and, being much thought of by the tenant, 

 were strictly preserved, and continued near the spot for many 

 years, W. J. 



E 



