THE ROOK. 



A Rookery. 



The Rook inhabits almost every part of Europe, and is very common in England, where it lives in a kind 

 of semi-domestication, usually inhabiting a grove of trees near a house, or in a park, where it is protected 

 by the owner, although he makes it pay for this accommodation by shooting the young once every year 

 Apparently in consequence of this annual persecution, the Rook has an intense horror of guns, perceiving 

 them at a great distance. While feeding in flocks in the fields, or following the ploughman in his course, 

 and devouring the worms and 'grubs turned up by the share, the Rook has always a sentinel planted in a 

 neighboring tree, who instantly gives the alarm at the sight of a gun, or of a suspicious looking object. 



The good which the Rook does by devouring the grubs of the cockchaffer, and the tipulas or dady-long- 

 legs, both of which are exeecdingky injurious to the crops, more than compensates for the damage it some- 

 times causes, by pulling up young corn, or newly set potato cuttings; in the latter case more, I believe, to 

 get at the wireworms, which crowd to the slices of potato, than to eat the vegetable itself. In the fruit 

 season, the Rook, like most other birds, likes to have his share of the cherries, pears and walnuts, but may 

 be easily kept away by the occasional sight of a gun. 



Towards evening the Rooks may be seen flying in long lines to their resting-place — " The blackening 

 "rain of crows to their repose." They then perform sundry evolutions in the air, and finally settle to rest. 



Round the base of the Rook's beak is a whitish looking skin, denuded of feathers, the reason or cause 

 of which is not very obvious. A white variety of the Rook is sometimes seen. The gamekeeper at 

 Ashdown had a very tine white Rook, which he kept tame in his garden. 



The cugs (if this bird are five in number similar to those of the Raven in color, but much smaller. The 

 length of the bird is nineteen inches. 



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