166 Rooks and Rookeries By James Small. 



At first peep of dawn a column of rooks may be seen leaving 

 the winter rookery and sailing away in one direction for tlie 

 familiar feeding ground in the district of their at present for- 

 saken rookery, to which they pay an occasional passing visit; 

 and in which they have a friendly gossip over the old nests ; and 

 about the same time other large flights leave the winter quarters 

 and sail off in different directions with similar ends in view. 

 Sometimes when visiting the old nests in autumn a little repair- 

 ing is done ; and I have known cases where entirely new nests 

 have been built in autumn. They do not fight to any extent 

 worthy of notice over the nests in autumn ; but they do much 

 cawing and capering, and show much excitement. The storms 

 of winter, however, generally wreck nearly all the exposed nests. 

 Where a cluster of some five or six nests is fixed in a many- 

 branched fork of a strong tree the winter weather generally does 

 it no harm. 



The trees of nearly all the very large rookeries are of Scotch 

 fir. Of the hardwood trees in rookeries the rooks prefer the ash 

 for nesting purposes ; but there are some pretty extensive rook- 

 eries in which almost all the trees are of varied hardwood. The 

 large rookery destroyed some years ago at Carolside, Berwick- 

 shire, was almost entirely of hardwood. The greatest number of 

 rook nests I ever saw on one tree was 46, on an ash tree in the 

 town of Galashiels, in 1878. Give the moderate number of four 

 young birds as the product of each nest, and we have 1 84 birds 

 reared on one tree ; and adding the number of parent birds the 

 tree would give rest to 276 rooks nightly. 



With a view of ascertaining the number, size, age, &c. of 

 rookeries in the counties of Northumberland, Eoxburgh, Ber- 

 wick, Selkirk, and Peebles, I sent out, in 1877, a circular in 

 which I asked for information on those points ; and the circular 

 also asked for information as to the food of rooks ; and for infor- 

 mation about wood pigeons and heronries in those counties. 

 Two hundred circulars were sent out, many of them to members 

 of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, and the rest to landlords 

 and farmers and gamekeepers, the latter a class who generally 

 know much of birds and their ways. The returns received are 

 numerous ; and many of my correspondents have kindly taken 

 much trouble and have shown much care in getting up and send- 

 ing correct information ; and I heartily thank all who have sent 

 in the returns, from which what follows is largely drawn. 



