176 OMNI VOILE. 



strongest of their attachments ; but there is a feeling towards 

 the society, and even the place ; for if part of the trees are 

 cut down, the rooks will accommodate each other upon the 

 remaining ones, often so thickly as to contain two nests in 

 the same fork, without any signs of hostility between either 

 the old birds or the broods. In close time the male does not 

 take turn in sitting, and when the action of the eggs has 

 begun, the female is never long absent from the nest ; but 

 the male certainly does bring food to her, and appears as 

 willing to* bestow as she is grateful to receive. After the 

 young are of such an age as they can be left, both parents 

 assist in feeding them ; and as the working of the land goes 

 on during the time, or if not, the larvae come near the surface 

 of the pastures, an abundance of food for the numerous broods 

 (the average is five) is obtained without much difficulty. The 

 feeding continues after the birds leave the nest, and " branch ;" 

 and when there are several broods on the same tree, each 

 parent appears to know its young, and each of the young its 

 parent, with as much certainty as the ewes and lambs of a 

 flock know each other, though the ewes are browsing and the 

 lambs sporting indiscriminately over the pasture. The pairing 

 attachment weakens, if it does not altogether cease, as soon 

 as the young birds are able to shift for themselves ; but the 

 social instinct, which is the bond of union of the rookery, 

 continues not only for life, but through as many generations 

 as the trees continue ; and if these are cut down en masse, 

 the birds remove en masse to a new locality, generally as near 

 the old one as they can. 



The treatment of orphan broods, and the disposal of 

 widowed rooks, are curious points in the domestic history 

 of a rookery ; but they are points upon which, from the 

 similarity of one rook to another, it is very difficult to get 

 accurate information. There is little doubt, however, that 

 when any casualty happens to the parents after the brood 



