CORVID^. 95 



different his attitude on the same trees some bright breezy autumn day ! 

 he then poises himself joyously on his perch, his tail horizontal or slightly 

 perked upwards, as he talks to his companions and scrutinizes the 

 neighbourhood for the best prospect of a successful day's campaign against 

 his juicy insect food. And then how characteristic a sight of a warm 

 summer's evening, just at the still sunset hour, the flocks of Hooks seen 

 returning from their feeding-stations to their roosts, some ancient bird 

 leading the clanging rookery home — their numbers seemingly interminable ; 

 they have all apparently passed overhead, yet still are there specks which 

 grow out of the distance and reveal themselves as birds. The cry is still 

 they come, and if there be a large rookery in the neighbourhood the long- 

 drawn-out stream will be perhaps a quarter of an hour or more streaking 

 the sky, until at last the army becomes reduced to one or two laggards 

 which bring up the rear. 



The direction of these homeward flights will be often observed to alter 

 at different seasons of the year, as the Eooks are a little capricious in the 

 choice of their quarters for the night, and wiU shift from one wood to 

 another according to its position on sheltered or exposed slopes of the 

 hills. However, when we lived in Pembrokeshire, the inmates of a large 

 rookery, two miles distant, used to pass over our house every morning 

 about half an hour after sunrise, on their way to some high moors above, 

 where they scattered about to feed, and always returned just before sunset, 

 streaming over our house again. For eight years we noticed that they 

 never failed to pass each morning and evening, whatever the weather, over 

 our house, and never deviated fifty yards from their usual aerial path. 



It is well known that in the autumn the Eooks revisit their rookeries 

 and examine the condition of their nests. They do not, however, remain 

 there, but after assembling at the trees fly off to their roosting-station in 

 the sheltered woods they have selected for the winter. Very rarely Hooks 

 have been known to hatch off a second brood in the autumn. Early in 

 October 1SG5 five pairs of Eooks were building, and in one nest there 

 were several young, at Mr, Willcock's farm, ' Pengelly's,' near Exeter. A 

 similar instance was communicated by Mr. E. H. Eodd to Mr. Yarrell, 

 Eooks having hatched their young in a sheltered valley in Cornwall in 

 !N^ovember 1S36. 



In Devonshire Eooks begin to build usually about the middle of February, 

 but in 1874, 1SV7, and 1882 at the beginning of that month, and in 

 1800 in January, at Topsham. They line their nests with earth, and on 

 April 8th, 18(j.5, we picked up a clod of earth dropped by a Eook which 

 was attempting to carry it to her nest in her beak, and wo found it to 

 weigh 2^ oz. 



Young Eooks are very often more or less marked with wliitc, especially 

 on the chin and throat, and the claws, toes, and legs are frequently white 

 or mottled. We have shot many in our own rookery near Topsham 

 marked in this manner. One with white quill-foathers and mottled feet 

 was shot at Crediton, July i;3th, 1882 (Zool. 188;}, p. 28), Mr. Comyns 

 had one entirely white except the scapulars (E. M., Trans. I'lym. Inst. 

 18^50^. There is a carious lead-coloured variety in the A. M. M. Mr. 



