BIRDS' NESTS. 183 



locality, it rarely deserts it, but returns year 

 after year. Should one of a pair chance to 

 be killed, the survivor finds a new mate, and, 

 strange to say, if both be destroyed, the nest 

 usually finds a new pair of occupants in the 

 following season. The eggs are four or five 

 in number, two inches long, of a pale green, 

 spotted and speckled with darker greenish 

 brown. 



ROOK. Corvus frugilegus. 

 PLA.TE XIII. FIG. 1. 



MANY singular localities of Rooks' nests are 

 noticed by ornithologists ; such, for instance, 

 as the spire of a church in the heart of London, 

 or the vane of the Exchange in Newcastle- 

 upon-Tyne, in which latter situation a nest 

 was constructed annually for ten consecutive 

 years, and was whirled round with every 

 change of wind. It would not, however, be 

 correct to name such situations as the natural 

 places of resort of these birds. The fact is, 



