160 Rooks and Rookeries. By James Small. 



for many years past it has been exceedingly poor. "Wandering 

 over those hills of late years, which I have repeatedly done in 

 the shooting season, I have often observed that carrion crows 

 were almost always in sight, flying in pairs. On some of the 

 higher fells in Upper Liddlesdale I have seen as many as five 

 pairs at one time all carefully hunting every foot of ground. 



Hooded crows are comparatively scarce in the eastern Borders ; 

 but they are moderately numerous about the sea-margins, as are 

 also both carrion crows and rooks — the latter especially in winter. 



Eooks are widely spread over many lands, and, as we shaU 

 show, they abound in vast numbers in the Borders. They are 

 our most wary and intelligent birds ; and considering the vast- 

 ness of their number it is somewhat wonderful how few compar- 

 atively fall a prey to guns, traps, and other deadly engines set 

 against them. They are also more bold and clever than 

 the lively and cunning Jackdaw. Many who have not careftdly 

 watched the ways of both think otherwise ; but having for a long 

 course of years been an observer of the habits of those birds, 

 both wild and tame, I have to state that I have found the rook 

 superior both in intelligence and general courage ; and in a tame 

 state it confides more in man than the Jackdaw, and shows 

 besides so many peculiar traits that at times it actually seems to 

 possess humour. The tame rook is particularly fond of any hard 

 shining portable article — a penny -piece, for instance ; and all 

 such things, after hammering them a little with his biU, he in- 

 variably hides. After pushing a penny as far out of sight as he 

 possibly can under some cover, he immediately begins to walk 

 sentry at the spot — head and tail cocked up in a ludicrous 

 fashion ; and performs a strutting march with all the pomp and 

 gravity pertaining to a drill instructor of a Highland regiment 

 of the line. For his size there is no braver bird than the rook ; 

 and there is no bird of equal size for which he shows fear. He 

 faces the kestrel hawk, and often fights with it. I once watched 

 a fight between a rook and kestrel for fully half-an-hour, and 

 when I left they were still fighting. This was on the Dunion 

 moor near Jedburgh. The birds fought for perhaps a couple of 

 minutes at a time ; then the hawk flew off some twenty yards or 

 so ; and in less than a minute the rook invariably mounted from 

 the ground, and looked for the hawk, which it no sooner saw 

 than it darted down on it, and renewed the fight. However I 

 have in the nesting season seen the missel thrush drive off the 



