Rooks and Rookeries. By James Small. 163 



ousy and love of strife seemed to blind the birds, for no nest was 

 ever built on it but the one. When whaling vessels reach the G-ulf- 

 stream the weary frost-bitten sailors at once find their troubles 

 cease and their wounds begin to heal in the genial climate ; so, 

 whenever the rook lays her first egg in the hitherto hotly dis- 

 puted nest, all is peace ; and from that day till her young are 

 fledged and afield not even a rude caw is given over her head. 

 This shows an instinct strongly akin to reason, and an idea of 

 fairplay. 



The faith that in the breeding season rooks have in man is 

 truly wonderful. They build their nests on the trees that sur- 

 round his dwelling, and often on trees so low that the nests could 

 be reached by a ten feet pole. They also build in clumps of 

 trees and small woods in towns and cities ; and of late years there 

 has been a great increase in town and village nests, and also in the 

 nests built near mansions and farm houses in the country. This 

 may be accounted for in two ways ; first by the increase of the 

 birds ; and second, because the rooks find from experience that 

 they are less molested and shot down in such places than when 

 they nest in the ordinary large rookeries, where the slaughter of 

 the innocents is generally done on a wholesale scale, by 

 climbers and shooters. 



Rooks are both early and late birds. I have frequently heard 

 them, when flying overhead, so early in the dawn in spring and 

 summer that they could not be seen ; and every one has seen and 

 heard the long strings of clangourous rooks flying homeward in 

 the dull grey of night fall ; and even behind the main flight, 

 laggards and keen grub-hunters keep flying homeward in ones 

 and twos for a considerable time after the main body is settled 

 for the night ; but none of those single late-returning birds 

 lift up the voice. They approach and enter the rookery in 

 dead silence, as if ashamed of their hours. 



In the nesting season many rooks lose their voice. You see 

 them apparently crowing, but no sound is produced. I cannot 

 account for this. One of my tame rooks entirely lost its voice 

 one spring. He often tried to crow, but coidd not. I noticed 

 that the point of his tongue at this time looked dry and it had a 

 sort of dead-brown colour. I have often observed that a num- 

 ber of parent rooks have a peculiar cry when approaching the 

 nest with food for the younglings. They produce a nearly con- 

 tinuous fond shrill and pleasing sound, something like a long 



