01' ICOliTHOrBEKLAAD AJS^D DTJUHAM. 37 



Some years ago there were tkree or four rookeries in I^ew- 

 castle : one was in the close near the Tyne Bridge, another was 

 in a large willow in the Yicarage garden, Westgate Street. This 

 tree was blown down in 1816, bnt the Crows had nearly all de- 

 serted it the previous year. A third was in existence withia the 

 last twenty or thirty years, in a small clump of trees in the 

 grounds of a house ia Percy Street, still called the Crow Trees. 

 These trees one after another decayed, and as they died out, the 

 colony gradually took possession of two or three large ash trees 

 on the opposite side of the street in St. Thomas's Churchyard. 

 I have counted as many as sixteen nests in these trees; but, 

 alas ! the unfortunate Eooks were not allowed to rest in peace, 

 though so near to the church, and within its fence. !N"o street 

 arab could pass the clustering nests without having a " shy" at 

 them with a stone. The nests in the course of a few years were 

 reduced to two or three, and soon afterwards, the birds being 

 ruthlessly persecuted and their nests destroyed, entirely disap- 

 peared. This happened in 1866, and thus terminated the last 

 rookery in l^ewcastle. 



The rookery in the Close had in like manner long been reduced 

 to a single tree, which at length became so crowded with nests 

 that there was no room for more, so the increasing birds had to 

 seek accommodation elsewhere ; and a pair, so pressed, built 

 their nest for several years on the top of the weather cock of the 

 Old Exchange house on the Sandhill, one of the most crowded 

 parts of the town, and here broods were reared from 1783 till 

 1788. An account of this strange nesting place of the Eook 

 is given in Syke's "Local Records." Mr. James Clephan has 

 called my attention to a concise description of the rookeries in 

 IS'ewcastle, which appeared in the "Newcastle Chronicle," May 

 28th, 1864. 



The Eook, like all other birds, is liable to vary in plumage ; 

 it is occasionally pied irregularly with white, sometimes an en- 

 tirely white individual will make its appearance. There is one 

 of this latter variety in the Newcastle Museum. But a variety 

 of much greater interest has occurred in our neighbourhood, and 

 is in my collection. It is figured on Plate III., and is a young 



