HOOK. 99 



to by Mr. Jesse, mentions a Rook's nest, with young ones 

 in it on the 26th of November. Charles Anderson, Esq., 

 some time since wrote me word, that in 1817 a pair of 

 Rooks had a nest with eggs in a tall elm at Lea, near 

 Gainsborough, so late as the month of November. E. H. 

 Rodd, Esq. of Penzance, has also sent me word that at his 

 father's residence in Cornwall, Rooks built their nests, and 

 hatched young birds, in a warm sheltered valley near the 

 house, in November 1836, and in November 1844, a pair of 

 Rooks built a nest and produced their young on the outer 

 branch of an old elm -tree, near the Park entrance to 

 Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire, as recorded 4by F. Wyatt 

 in the Zoologist for March 1845. 



Rooks, like some others of the Crow tribe, have been 

 occasionally tamed, and learnt to perform many amusing 

 tricks, becoming greatly attached to those who fed and 

 protected them. Mr. Hewitson has heard the Rook imi- 

 tate the note of the Jackdaw. Mr. Macgillivray men- 

 tions having repeatedly heard one " that imitated so re- 

 markably well the barking of several dogs in the village 

 that, had it been placed out of view, it would have been 

 impossible to have discovered the deception ;" and adds 

 besides, that when making a visit of observation to a 

 rookery, he was surprised to hear several Rooks uttering a 

 variety of soft, clear, modulated notes, very unlike their 

 usual cry. " Tn the intervals,"" it is observed, " I could 

 distinguish the faint shrill voice of the newly hatched 

 young, which their mothers, I felt persuaded, were fondling 

 and coaxing in this manner. Indeed the sounds were 

 plainly expressive of affection, and a desire to please/" 1 The 

 numerous muscles already described as belonging to all the 

 species of the Crow tribe, sufficiently account for the 

 powers here manifested by the Rook. 



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