Rook. INSESSORES. CORVUS. 355 



tering wings, open beak, and the same interrupted note, that 

 must have been generally observed in the young birds. 



The eggs of the Rook are four or five in number, of a Eggs, 

 bluish-green colour, blotched with darker stains. After the 

 young have taken wing, the old birds sometimes forsake the 

 nest-trees, but invariably return to them again in October, at 

 which time they are observed occasionally to repair their 

 nests. 



The Rook is common throughout England, and the greater 

 part of Scotland. It is a native of most of the temperate 

 European regions, and of some parts of Asia. According to 

 Latham, it is migratory in Erance and Silesia, and he adds, 

 that it is a singular circumstance the Islands of Jersey and 

 Guernsey should be without Rooks, particularly when it is 

 ascertained that they frequently fly across the channel, from 

 this country to Erance. 



Plate 30. Eigure of the natural size. 



Bill bluish-black, the base, in the adult bird, denuded of General 

 feathers, and covered with a white scurf. Whole plu- ^^^^^ ^' 

 mage black, glossed with rich tints of blue and violet- 

 purple. Eeathers on the back of the neck long, loose, 

 and silky. Legs and claws black. 



This bird is subjected to considerable variation of plumage, 

 being sometimes found of a pure white, or of a piebald 

 appearance. I possessed two of a sienna-yellow colour, 

 with the wings and tail inclining to yellowish-grey, with 

 red irides, and with the bill, legs, and toes, flesh- red, 

 taken from the same nest, in which were also two of the 

 usual colour. 



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