10 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



not far off. In the spring of 1886 I made out that there were 

 approximately 680 rooks' nests within the then boundaries 

 of the City.^ Last year the number within, roughly, the 

 same limits barely reached 200, showing how the removal 

 of trees, building operations, and in some instances direct 

 persecution, have gradually driven the birds farther afield. 

 In this connection the following extract from a letter, signed 

 "A Naturalist," in the Scotsman of 3rd March 1885, seems 

 worth reproducing here : — • 



" Until the last few years our town [Edinburgh] was full of 

 small rookeries, and in the spring times the work of nest-building 

 and the noisy feeding of the young were very pleasant sights, 

 at least to many people. One by one they have nearly all been 

 destroyed. The splendid clump of trees (tenanted by rooks every 

 year) in Charlotte Square made way for a. necessary, but not more 

 beautiful monument ; and only a year or two ago the populous 

 rookery near Greenhill Park was cut down for the building of 

 a row of shops and tenement houses. Under these circumstances 

 the bird-lover may be sorrowful, but can scarcely complain. But 

 many smaller rookeries have been wilfully destroyed, because some 

 neighbour could see no beauty in them, and was offended by 

 the poor rooks' caw. For this reason the rookery in Randolph 

 Crescent was destroyed, and more recently the last remaining 

 nests in George Square were torn down. . . . Last year a writer 

 in your paper exposed the wanton destruction of a great many 

 rooks in the Dean Cemetery just as they were beginning to build 

 their nests," 



1 The details are as follows : — Falconhall (Morningside), 69 nests ; 

 west end of Chamberlain Road, 4 ; St Bennet's (east of Churchhill) and 

 vicinity, 109 ; corner of Whitehouse Loan and Blackford Road, 34 ; 

 Blacket Place (Newington\ about 130 ; The Convent, Warrender Park, 

 27 ; Meadow Walk, 4 ; Melville Drive (west end of), 9 ; Haymarket, 15 ; 

 Coates Crescent, 2 ; Parsons Green, about 120; Arboretum, about 160, 

 The rookery then at Prestonfield, near Duddingston, was not included 

 in that enumeration. 



Among some ornithological notes given me by Mr R. Godfrey many 

 years ago, these occur, viz. : — 20th March 1894 : In Raeburn Place there 

 are 19 rooks' nests in two trees, and in a new rookery at Comely Bank 

 there are 4 nests. 31st March : The larger tree (13 nests) at Raeburn 

 Place has been destroyed to effect a clearance for building purposes. 

 28th February 1896 : St Bernard's Crescent used to boast of a small 

 rookery. 



