294 THE JACKDAW. 



is dissipated. During the "Rook-shooting" time, all the strong-winged birds leave their 

 nests at the first report of the gun, and, rising to an enormous elevation, sail about like so 

 many black midges over their deserted homes, and pour out their complaints in loud and 

 doleful cries, which are plainly audible even from the great height at which they are soaring. 

 The voice of the Rook is too well known to need description, and the bird is rather capricious 

 in the utterance (>f its hoarse cry, sometimes keeping a prolonged silence, and at other times 

 cawing about incessantly. 



In captivity the Rook retains many of its wild customs, and in one instance was in the 

 habit of going round the hens" nests and eating the eggs as soon as they were laid. The Rook 

 is not often kept as a domestic pet, as it is with difficulty reared when young. Before rain, 

 the Rook has a curious custom of ascending to a considerable height, and then shooting 

 obliquely through the air, in a manner somewhat similar to a hawk making its swoop. During 

 the daytime, the Rooks are widely dispersed throughout the fields, occasionally visiting their 

 homes and then returning to their feeding-places ; but, as the evening approaches, they cease 

 feeding with one accord, and seek their nests, flying in long trains to the spot where they have 

 made their residence. 



The nest of the Rook is huge, and rather clumsily built ; consisting chiefly of sticks, upon 

 which are laid sundry softer materials as a resting-place for the eggs. The Rook is a very 

 gregarious bird, building in numbers on the boughs of contiguous trees, and having a kind of 

 social compact that often arises into the dignity of law. For example, the elder Rooks will 

 not permit the younger members of the community to build their nests upon an isolated tree 

 at a distance from the general assemblage; and if they attempt to infringe this regulation, 

 always attack the offending nest in a body, and tear it to pieces. They are even clever enough 

 to notice the marks that are made on the trunks of trees that are to be felled, and will neither 

 build on those doomed branches nor permit their young friends to do so. They also have a 

 kind of criminal code, for they have been seen to hold a sort of trial, ending in the condemna- 

 tion and execution of the culprit; and they unanimously punish those lazy Rooks which, 

 instead of going out to fetch sticks for their nests, stay quietly at home and rob those of other 

 Rooks. 



The number of birds that are to be found in such rookeries is enormously great, several 

 thousands having been counted in a single assemblage. In such cases they do great damage 

 to the upper branches of the lives, and in some instances have been known to kill the tree, by 

 the continual destruction of the growing boughs. 



The color of the Rook is a glossy, deep blue-black ; the blue being more conspicuous on 

 the wing-coverts and the sides of the head and neck. The bird may be easily recognized, even 

 at a distance, by the conspicuous grayish-white skin, which serves to distinguish it from the 

 crow. The length of an adult Rook is about eighteen or nineteen inches. 



The smallest of the Corvidse is the well-known Jackdaw, a bird of infinite wit and 

 humor, and one that has an extraordinary attachment for man and his habitations. 



Although of similar form, and black of plumage, the Jackdaw may easily be distinguished 

 from either the rook or the crow by the gray patch upon the crown of the head and back of 

 the neck, which is very conspicuous, and can be seen at a considerable distance. The voice, 

 too. is entirely different from the caw of the rook or the hoarse cry of the crow, and as the 

 bird is very loquacious, it soon announces itself by the time of its voice. It generally takes 

 up its home near houses, and is fond of nesting in old buildings, especially preferring the 

 steeples and towers of churches and similar edifices, where its nest and young are safe from 

 the depredations of stoats, weasels, and other destroyers. Indeed, there are few places where 

 Jackdaws will not build, provided that they are tolerably steep and high ; and thei'e are many 

 curious circumstances in connection with its nesting, which will presently be mentioned. 



In its wild state the Jackdaw has many of the rook habits, and therefore needs no partic- 

 ular description. Mudie, however, mentions a curious circumstance, which seems to point out 

 a closer relationship between rooks and Jackdaws than could be supposed. "In the latter 

 part of the season, when the rooks from one of the most extensive rookeries made daily excur- 



