354 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



grown ducks, give one of them a few blows, throw it on its 

 back, and forthwith begin to tear it np. Such audacity is of 

 extremely rare occurrence. 



It is pleasant to think of birds in connexion with the localities 

 in which they were observed. Our rambles along the shore 

 of the County Antrim, have given us frequent opportunities 

 of noticing the Hooded-crows (Corvus comix] upon the 

 beach: they were not usually in pairs; three were more 

 frequently seen than two, and five than four. There too, near 

 the basaltic headlands of that noble coast, we have gazed 

 with pleasure on the Chough (Fregilus gracuhis), as it sailed 

 above our head, the brilliant red of its legs contrasting beau- 

 tifully with the glossy bluish black of the plumage. 



There is, however, no bird of the family so well known 

 throughout all the cultivated parts of the kingdom as the 

 Rook (Corvtia frugilegus), and as we prefer dwelling on that 

 which is common, rather than on that which is rare, we devote 

 to its habits the space at our command. 



It is a social bird, fond of living about the abodes of man, 

 and even of building in the heart of crowded cities. But it 

 is not with such haunts that its appearance is usually asso- 

 ciated, but with time-honoured mansions, and more especially 

 lofty trees, their chosen abodes during successive generations. 



Washington Irving has written respecting these birds,* in 

 his usual agreeable style. " They are," he says, " old esta- 

 blished housekeepers, high-minded gentlefolk, that have had 

 their hereditary abodes time out of mind;" and he goes on in 

 the same amusing manner to describe, what " rather derogates 

 from the grave and honourable character of these ancient 

 gentlefolk, that during the architectural season, they are 

 subject to great dissensions among themselves; that they 

 make no scruple to defraud and plunder each other, and that 

 sometimes the rookery is a scene of hideous brawl and com- 

 motion, in consequence of some delinquency of the kind." 



Mr. Macgillivray, when visiting a rookery t at night, "was 

 surprised to hear several rooks uttering a variety of soft clear 

 modulated notes very unlike their usual cry. In the interval 

 I could distinguish," says he, " the faint shrill voice of the 

 newly hatched young, which their mothers, I feel persuaded, 

 were fondling and coaxing in this manner. Indeed the sounds 



* The Rookery, Bracebridge Hall, 

 t British Birds, vol. i. p. 549. 



