THE ROOK. 317 



bodies might separate them from the branches. Such was their 

 common procedure with unyielding cones, as witnessed with much 

 interest from the windows of my friend's house ; some pines, m 

 which this ingenious feat was regularly practised, being only a few 

 yards distant. The rook being an especial favourite with me on 

 account of the benefit it does mankind, I was much gratified to 

 learn this proof of its intelligence. Tins feat raises the species to 

 an equality with the grey crow, as evinced by this bird's rising 

 into the air with shell-fish, and dropping them on the rocks to 

 break them, and renders the rook not unworthy, on the score of 

 intellect, of being placed in the same family group with the raven. 

 What they do with the cones, has not been ascertained. It would 

 seem to me, that unless the scales be so widely open, that the seed 

 is ready to drop out, they could hardly reach it, and even then, 

 a portion only would be accessible; the scales themselves could 

 only, I conceive, be detached, when partially decomposed; un- 

 fortunately, the proceedings of the birds, subsequent to their 

 carrying off the cones, have not been watched.* 



Great meetings of rooks, before the breeding-season commences, 

 have been alluded to by authors, some of whom consider that the 

 object is to settle preliminaries respecting that important period 

 — the correctness of which idea seems probable, though it must 

 be stated, that in the middle of October, I have remarked similar 

 assemblages. These meetings are sometimes long continued. 

 During four weeks in the year 1837- — from January 21st to Feb- 

 ruary 17th — whenever I happened to ride between two and three 

 o'clock, in the direction of two rookeries, I always saw, at a place 

 intermediate between them, and about a mile distant from each, 

 extraordinary numbers, amounting certainly to several thousands ; 

 more than I conceive the two rookeries could furnish — a third 



* Mr. Blackwall, in his Researches in Zoology (p. 156), remarks, that "rooks in 

 the autumn frequently bury acorns in the earth, probably with the intention of 

 having: recourse to them when their wants are more urgent." Mr. Jesse, too, states 

 that these birds " are known to bury acorns, and, I believe, walnuts also, as I have 

 observed them taking ripe walnuts from a tree, and returning to it before they could 

 have had time to break them and eat the contents. Indeed, when we consider how 

 hard the shell of a walnut is, it is not easy to guess how the rook contrives to break 

 them. May they not, by first burying them, soften the shells, and afterwards return 

 to feed upon them ? " (Gleanings in Natural History, 1st series.) 



