Birds. 8885 
At this season of the year they visit the south of England in immense flocks, and in 
severe winters do an incredible amount of damage to green crops, such as rape, turnips, 
&e.—Henry Reeks ; Manor House, Thruxton, November 10, 1863. 
The Food of Rooks.—I see at Zool. 8816 a note on the food of rooks, doubting the 
assertion of M. Pievost that the food of rooks consists amongst other things of “ birds, 
field-mice, young rabbits, different animals and decaying substances.” As to young 
rabbits I can quite bear out the assertion of M. Prevost; for in the spring of 1862 I 
saw and watched for some time a rook busily engaged in feeding on something close 
by a hedge. So busy was he that he let me approach quite close before he flew away, 
and joined a flock of his companions in the next field, so that I am quite sure of the 
fact that the bird was a rook and not acrow. On going up to the place to see what 
the rook was feeding on, I found a young rabbit quite warm and only just dead, but 
with part of the entrails eaten. I cannot of course say that the rook killed the rabbit, 
but I should think it extremely probable, as the rabbit had been so recently killed 
when I came up and drove the rook away. We may also add sand eels to the list of 
articles forming the food of the rook given at Zool. 8762, as I have frequently seen 
them at Teignmouth feeding with the gulls on sand eels, especially just after the seine 
had been thrown for these fish. Walnuts I know also, to my cost, form a large part 
of the food of the rook in September and October.—Cecil Smith ; Lydiard House, 
November 3, 1863. 
Rooks Breeding in November.—On Thursday last, November 19th, Mr. J. Thorpe, 
of Rye Common, near Odiham, examined four rooks’ nests on Jand in his occupation, 
all of which had young in them.— Reading Mercury, November 21, 1863. 
Domesticated Magpies.—My uncle, Major Mortimer, resided for some years in the 
very secluded hamlet of Sandypark, in the parish of Drewsteignton, Devonshire. A 
magpie had built a nest at a little distance from the house, and when the two young 
magpies which it contained were about half-fledged, my uncle carried the nest and its 
contents into one of the bed-rooms, and placed it in a large wicker cage, leaving the 
door open, and at the same time the window of the chamber. The old bird very soon 
mustered sufficient courage to come and feed them, and when the young ones became 
old enough to fly away they were not prevented from doing so. My aunt and a niece 
occasionally fed these birds, and on their being set at liberty they would fly to them, 
when they were walking in the garden, and indeed sometimes at a very considerable 
‘distance from the house, and they were so familiar as to eat out of their hands. They 
were also in the habit of flying in at the windows of the cottagers, and of carrying off 
anything that was portable within their reach; so that to prevent Lynch law from 
being executed on her pilfering pet protegées, my aunt had to manufacture net blinds 
for all the cottage windows in the hamlet. After this things went on very well for 
some time, the magpies joining them in their walks, sometimes hopping and chattering 
just before them, then taking a flight and after a time rejoining them again. At 
length Good Friday came, and with it some idle lads from Mr. Berry’s manufactory 
at Chagford, one of whom, armed with a fowling-piece, thought he had performed a 
prodigy of sportsmanship in shooting one of these familiar birds, who, alas! had been 
too tame to keep bad company at a sufficient distance. The other bird pined away, 
Surviving bis companion but a very short time.—Thomas Mortimer ; Braunton.— 
[Communicated by P. H. Gosse, Esq.) 
Two Cuckoos’ Eggs in one Nest.—A correspondent (Zool. 8822) mentions that he 
found two eggs of the cuckoo in one titlark’s nest; but it must be inferred that two 
