240 Corvidce. 



downfall of the family on whose property it stands is surely 

 predicted. They are also said to avoid building on trees which 

 are unsound, however fair their outward appearance ; cunningly, 

 if not too sagaciously, foreseeing their coming fall ; but this in all 

 likelihood is to be attributed to the decay which has already 

 begun in the uppermost twigs, and which they have found by 

 experiment to be unfit for their requirements. It is also com- 

 monly said in some places that when a rookery is near a house, 

 and a death occurs in that house, the Rooks will not leave the 

 neighbourhood until the funeral has taken place. The following 

 is an old rhyme common in the northern counties of England : 



* On the first of March 

 The crows begin to search ; 

 By the first o' April 

 They are sitting still ; 

 By the first o' May 

 They're a' flown away : 

 Creeping greedy back again 

 Wi' October's wind and rain.' 



Except during the nesting season February to May Rooks 

 do not roost on the trees where they breed, but wing their way 

 from the several rookeries in the neighbourhood to some large 

 wood, where they congregate from all the country round. But 

 they generally call at their nesting trees as they pass to their 

 feeding grounds in the early morning, and often halt there again 

 as they return at the close of day. The specific name frugilegus 

 signifies 'fruit collecting,' but let it be remembered that the 

 seeds of weeds, together with grubs, wireworms, and many other 

 destructive members of the animal and vegetable kingdoms are 

 all ' fruit ' to the Rook. In France it is known as Le Freux ; in 

 Germany, Saat-Eobe, 'Seed-Crow;' in Sweden, where, except 

 in the extreme south of the country, it is rarely seen, Rdka; 

 in Spain and Portugal, where it is only a winter visitor, Gralha. 



c Dyer's 'English Folk-Lore,' p. 77. 



