4 NATURAL HISTORY. 



is essentially a civilised bird, and rookeries are generally found in close proximity to houses, and often 

 in the midst of villages or even towns. This is the case in London itself, where a time-honoured spot 

 may here and there be found to which the Rooks resort year after year. 



Opinions are divided as to the utility of the Rook ; in some places the bird being regarded as a 

 benefactor, in others as a depredator, only fit to be shot and trapped along with other vermin. The 

 truth probably lies between these two opinions, for although it eats an immense number of noxious 

 insects and grubs, it will devour eggs and young birds, while there is no question as to its creating 

 considerable havoc among the trees in the spring-time, when it breaks off' large numbers of young 

 boughs wherewith to build its nest ; in the south of England, too, in the autumn, it often commits 

 great depredations among the walnuts. As an example of the omnivorous qualities of the Rook 

 we quote the following note, contributed by Mr. Cecil Smith to Mr. Dresser's "Birds of Europe:" 

 " Its appetite and digestion are perfectly astonishing ; nothing seems to come amiss to it. Besides its 

 lawful and useful food of grubs, worms, &c., I have seen it kill and eat a young Rabbit, and young 

 Ducks or Ducks' eggs have no chance ; it will devour flesh, either fresh or stale, raw or cooked, and 

 walnuts in any quantity. Near the sea I have seen Rooks picking up arid eating Sand-Eels and other 

 small fish after the seine has been drawn, and squabbling with the Gulls for Mussels on the Mussel- 

 beds ; these it breaks in the same way as the Gulls, taking them up to a height and dropping them on 

 a hard, stony place. I have seen it treat an obstinate walnut in the same way. Rooks seem 

 occasionally to cast up pellets of the indigestible portion of what they have eaten, after the manner 

 of Hawks ; so I suppose their digestion is not quite equal to everything. One of these pellets which I 

 saw a Rook cast up, and which I examined, consisted of stones, hard parts of beetles, and husks of 

 corn. So necessary are stones to help digestion that old Rooks give them to their young before they 

 leave the nest, and I have frequently found them in the stomachs of young Rooks shot in the Rook- 

 shooting time, and before they had left their native tree." 



THE TRUE RAVENS (Corms). 



The most familiar species of Raven is the Common Raven, and it is also the most widely dis- 

 tributed. Some six other species are known : one of them, the Brown-necked Raven (C. umbrinus), 

 "being an inhabitant of the Mediterranean sub-region. This division of the earth comprises all the 

 countries lying on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea, and includes Palestine and Syria, Persia and 

 Beloochistan, as far as the confines of North- Western India. Although belonging to the Palrearctic 

 region, the above-named sub-region forms a very natural division, and is principally characterised by the 

 presence of many Chats and Sand- Grouse, which do not occur in the more northern parts of the Old World. 

 The islands of Madeira and the Canaries are considered, zoologically, to form an outlying part of the 

 Mediterranean region, and they show a partial connection with the rest of Europe in the possession of 

 a typical Bullfinch (Pyrrhula murina), while their zoological affinity to Algeria and Northern Africa 

 is demonstrated by their having the same Blue Titmouse (Parus teneriffix) and the same Raven (Corvus 

 leptonyx). 



In India a small form of Raven (Corvus culminatus) occurs, and another in Australia. 



THE COMMON RAVEN (Corvus corax). 



There are certain birds, which are found in the northern regions of the Old and New Worlds, 

 showing the strong under-current of affinity which exists between the Avifauna of these two parts of 

 the globe. Some ornithologists have attempted to prove that the American Raven is specifically 

 distinct from the European one, and the Mexican bird has even been separated further from that of 

 North America. But it seems to be an undoubted fact that the Raven is extremely variable in size, 

 and as this is the only character which has been brought forward for its specific separation, no certain 

 distinctions can be drawn ; and in this work all the various kinds of Raven, with the exception 

 of those above noted, are treated as belonging to one species only (Corvus corax). 



The Raven enjoys the credit of being the most northerly Passerine bird known, with the exception 

 of the Snow Banting (Plectrophantt nivalis) ; for Captain Fielden observed it, in Sir George N ares' Arctic 

 Expedition, as far north as Cape Lupton, lat. 81 s 44' N., when a pair of them were breeding during the 

 month of July. All over Europe and Siberia, as well as Central Asia, the Raven is fo'und in smaller 

 or larger numbers, and in the cold weather it is found in North- Western India, being absent in China 



