THE COMMON ROOK. 



SUB-FAMILY CORVINE. 



In this sub-family is found a great diversity of form, as it contains, besides the true Crows, all the 

 Jays, Magpies, Hill Crows, and even such apparently different birds as the Huia bird and Wattle 

 Starling of New Zealand, 



THE COMMON ROOK (Trypanocorax frugilegus). 



To any one who has not handled a Rook it would perhaps be a matter of surprise, on his first 

 acquaintance with it in person, to find it such a handsomely burnished bird, for in the distance its 

 appearance is dull black. Both male and female, however, have a most beautiful gloss of purple and 

 green on the plumage, but this they share with many others of the Crow family ; one peculiarity they 

 have for their own, and that one is their bare face. How the bird gets its visage denuded of plumes 

 is a problem still unsolved, for the young have the head fully feathered, and only obtain the bare face 

 during their first winter. Up to this time a young Rook might easily be mistaken by an 

 inexperienced eye for a Carrion Crow, but the Rook can be recognised at any age by its 

 having the base of the feathers grey, and not ivhite, as in the latter species. An idea 



COMMON HOOK. 



prevalent amongst naturalists for many years was that the Rook's face became denuded of 

 feathers through the bird's habit of thrusting its bill deep into the ground in search of food, 

 but that this cannot be the case is proved by the fact that no such result is found to occur in 

 allied species of similar habits, such as the Carrion Crow, for instance ; while it is certain that at 

 times, when the hardness of the ground prevented the Rooks digging for food, these bare places 

 would be replenished by a new stock of feathers : and this we know not to be the case. This bare face, 

 then, must be considered to be an individual peculiarity in the Rooks, and it is found, though not to 

 the same extent, in the Chinese Rook (Trypanocorax pastinator). 



The Rook is found all over Europe, but does not extend into the high north, and only occasionally 

 straggles beyond the line of the Tropic of Cancer. It breeds throughout Central Europe between 60 and 

 40 N. lat., and above the former line it rests only in certain portions of Norway and Sweden and near 

 Archangel. To Southern Europe it is only a winter visitant, and it is found in North-western India 

 in the winter also. In some parts of North-western Tm-kestan it breeds, but is found in Yarkand 

 only in the winter. To the eastward of this last locality we have no trace of it, and it is not until 

 we come to Eastern Siberia and Northern China that we meet with its cousin, the Chinese Rook. 



It differs from its European congeners in being gregarious and always breeding in colonies. It 

 evinces great attachment to its nesting-place, and the same nests are used by the birds year after year, 

 being repaired each season. It is an early breeder, beginning to make ready the nest in February or 

 March, and it has been known to commence the repairs as early as the 16th of the former month. It 



