96 THE BIRDS OF DEVON". 



Pt. P. ]!s^icholls has had mottled varieties sent to hira ; and ^Ir. Gatcomhe 

 records a remarkably mottled specimen shot near Plymouth in May 1880, 

 with the bill and toes of a beautiful chrome-yellow (Zool. 1881, p. 50). 



"We have always considered rook-shooting, even with pea-rifles, as very 

 poor sport., hardly to be ranked above pigeon battues ; but there is one 

 kind of sport afforded by the Hook which deserves to be spoken of in 

 higher terms. This is rook-hawking with trained Peregrines, especially 

 in those parts of the kingdom where the Hooks are in the habit of seeking 

 their food on high ground, and the falconer has an opportunity of inter- 

 cepting them on their return to their nests. When the Rook first becomes 

 conscious of danger and detects his enemy his alarm is often ludicrous, 

 and he will fly down a farm-house or cottage chimney, should one be at 

 hand ; but if there be no shelter available he will nerve himself to the 

 effort, and will at once begin mounting the air, and will afford a very 

 good flight. 



Young Hooks are extremely delicate eating and make delicious pies ; 

 Devonshire coimtry people will go any distance to fetch a bunch of them 

 when a great shoot comes off at some large rookery. 



Kaven. Corms coraa\ Limi. 



llesident, and up to forty years ago numerous, but now only occasionally 

 seen, except in certain places where a few jjairs still bi'eed on the cliffs of 

 the sea-coast, on the rocky tors of Dartmoor, and on trees in some woods 

 in ^'orth Devon. 



This powerful depredator is still not uncommon around the south-west 

 coast, where he occupies a nesting-station (to which the same pair return 

 year after year) on some of the high cliffs, and there lives a life of almost 

 constant warfare and bickering with the Peregrines and his other near 

 neighbours. Havens also inhabit and nest in some of the Dartmoor tors, 

 from whence young birds are annually brought into Plymouth for sale. 

 Although preferring rocks and cliff's for their eyries they occasionally 

 place their nest in a wood, generally choosing some tall Scotch fir, where 

 they construct an untidy edifice, sometimes contenting themselves with 

 enlarging a deserted Crow's or Sparrow-Hawk's nest, and are among the 

 earliest birds to lay, often having eggs before the end of Februarj-. The 

 eggs are very small in proportion to the size of the bird. 



Justly dreaded for the mischief they do, the destruction of any of these 

 wary tyrants is hailed with satisfaction by the farmers in the vicinity 

 they frequent, who have had many missing chickens to lay to their account : 

 and we recollect when one very ancient and powerful Haven was shot on 

 Brean Down, in Somerset, it was carried round the district to he exhibited, 

 its slayer receiving sundry small gratuities to reward him for the benefit 

 he had conferred upon the henwives. Havens may be judged to be 

 scarce in a locality, and yet any carrion will not fail to attract them from 

 a great distance, as we have observed ten or eleven congregated in an 

 orchard around a dead horse some miles inland. The presence of these 



