THE ROOK 69 



Scandinavia and the Isles of Scotland, where the Carrion Crow 



and Rook are all but unknown, so in England the representative 

 of the tribe is the Rook, a bird so like the Crow that it is called 

 by its name almost as frequently as by its own, yet so different 

 in habits that, instead of being under a perpetual and universal 

 ban, it is everywhere encouraged and indeed all but domesticated. 

 There are few English parks that do not boast of their rookery, 

 and few proprietors of modern demesnes pretending to be parks, who 

 would not purchase at a high price the air of antiquity and respect- 

 ability connected with an established colony of these birds. Owing 

 to their large size and the familiarity with which they approach 

 the haunts of men, they afford a facility in observing their habits 

 which belongs to no other birds ; hence all treatises on Natural 

 History, and other publications which enter into the details of 

 country life in England, abound in anecdotes of the Rook. Its 

 intelligence, instinctive appreciation of danger, voracity, its utility 

 or the reverse, its nesting, its morning repasts and its evening 

 flights, have all been observed and more or less faithfully recorded 

 again and again ; so that its biography is better known than that 

 of any other British bird. It would be no difficult task to compile 

 from these materials a good-sized volume, yet I doubt not that 

 enough remains untold, or at least not sufficiently authenticated, 

 to furnish a fair field of inquiry to any competent person who 

 would undertake to devote his whole attention to this one bird for 

 a considerable period of time. Such a biographer should make 

 himself master of all that has been recorded by various authorities, 

 and should then visit a large number of rookeries in all parts of 

 the kingdom, collecting and sifting evidence, making a series of 

 personal observations, and spreading his researches over all seasons 

 of the year. Such an inquiry, trivial though it may seem, would 

 be most useful, for the Rook, though it has many friends, 

 has also many enemies, and, being everywhere abundant, its 

 agency for good or evil must have serious results. The following 

 account being imperfect from want of space, the reader who wishes 

 to know more about this interesting bird must refer to our standard 

 works on Ornithology, and, above all, record and compare his 

 own personal observations. 



In the early spring months Rooks subsist principally on the 

 larvae and worms turned up by the plough, and without gainsay, 

 they are then exceedingly serviceable to the agriculturist, by 

 destroying a vast quantity of noxious insects which, at this period 

 of their growth, feed on the leaves or roots of cultivated vegetables. 

 Experience has taught them that the ploughman either has not the 

 power or the desire to molest them ; they therefore approach 

 the plough with perfect fearlessness, and show much rivalry in their 

 efforts to be first to secure the treasures just turned up. During 

 the various processes to which the ground is subjected in prepara- 



