7478 Birds. 



country mansions : this bird is gregarious : rooks build very early in 

 the year, often in the winter: it is recorded (Zool. 868) that a pair laid 

 in November ; the female sat and the eggs were hatched about the 

 18th ; the young ones died of cold. Mr. Norman relates that two pairs 

 of rooks built nests and reared their young on the top of a house in 

 Hull. Rooks have been induced to form a colony or rookery in a spot 

 where it was desired, by taking the eggs out of a magpie's nest, and 

 substituting those of a rook : the young rooks were brought up by the 

 magpie, and next year established themselves in the same locality : 

 Colonel Newman relates this interesting fact (Zool. 3327). 



Materials. Large sticks, hay, straw, &c. 



Eggs, 4, 5. Gray-green, spotted and blotched with smoky brown. 



Note. — I am unable to define any difference in colour between the 

 eggs of the raven, crow, hooded crow and rook. 



Jackdaw, Corvus monedula. 



Situation. Towers of churches, ruins, rocks, chalk-pits, hollow 

 trees ; sometimes in holes in the ground, especially rabbits' burrows. 



Materials. Sticks, straw, large feathers. 



Eggs, 4 — 8. Pale green-blue, spotted with dingy brown ; the spots 

 confluent at the larger end. 



Magpie, Corvus pica. 



Situation. In trees, generally tall ones, but sometimes in low 

 bushes — even in gooseberry bushes. 



Materials. The outer and upper portion of the nest, which is 

 almost spherical and domed, is composed of thorny sticks and 

 brambles ; smaller and thornless sticks are inside these, and then 

 follows a lining of clay, which in its turn is covered with fibrous roots 

 and hay. There is a circular hole on the side, through which the 

 birds enter: the incubating bird has its head pointing towards this 

 hole. A popular belief gives a second hole to the magpie's nest, 

 opposite the first; the object of this is supposed to be to allow the 

 bird's long tail to pass out : I cannot corroborate this view. 



Eggs, 6 — 8. Yellow-gray, speckled with yellow-brown. 



Jay, Corvus glandarius. 



Situation. In the thickest parts of woods. 



Materials. Sticks, roots ; small fibrous roots for lining. 



Eggs, 5, 6. Pale greenish blue, very thickly sprinkled with minute 

 brown spots, often confluent on the larger end, where there are 

 generally three or four irregular black streaks. 



Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis. 



Situation. In the trunk of a tree, particularly the aspen and black 



