170 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
and other noxious grubs; in the fallows, whilst he doubtless swallows a little 
grain, he does incalculable good by destroying wireworms and larve of cock- 
chafers, whilst in the turnip-fields he not only devours such examples of the 
latter grubs as he can find, but does considerable execution upon the dreaded 
and destructive caterpillar of a common moth (Agrotis segetum/. 
The nests are generally placed in the upper branches of tall trees; either in 
copses, plantations, pleasure-grounds, parks, or when planted in rows bounding 
the margin of a pasture, or forming an avenue over a country road; but 
Stevenson rightly says:—‘‘ Though for the most part selecting the tallest trees, 
and placing their nest near the upper branches, they will build also on low 
Scotch firs, in the most exposed situations,’ and he adds :—‘*‘A still more novel 
site has also been chosen by a few pairs at Spixworth Park, where, for the last 
two or three seasons, they have built in the tops of some fine laurestinus bushes, 
about twelve or fourteen feet from the ground, and others in a dwarf ilex, close 
to a flight of stone steps, connecting one part of the garden with the other, yet 
so low down that the feeding of the young was plainly visible from the windows 
of the hall.” When a rookery is well established, the birds are not easily 
persuaded to abandon it, excepting for private reasons of their own; moreover the 
continual noises of a great city do not seem to disturb them at all, as is evident 
from the fact that Rooks still build and breed in the old trees which have been 
left standing in the busiest parts of London.* 
The nest is usually commenced or repaired early in March, but after 
unusually mild winters building operations sometimes commence much earlier. 
After the exceptionally open winter of 1895-6 I saw several young Rooks sitting 
just outside the nests in which they had been hatched as early as the 6th March, 
whilst I had noticed the Rooks in a rookery close to my house repairing their 
nests in January, and in February a pair daily visited my garden for worms: a 
friend of mine living at Dulwich first directed my attention to the early pre- 
parations for nesting made by these birds, assuring me in January that he had 
seen a pair of Rooks carrying sticks up to their nest. In the ‘Feathered World’ 
for April 24th, 1896, Mr. W. N. Rushen says:—‘‘T saw two young Rooks near 
Wanstead Park, on April 8th, which were as strong on the wing as their parents; 
and, to be as forward as this, they must have left the nest for some weeks.” + 
The structure is usually very compact, formed of strong sticks and twigs, 
* Sometimes the nest is said to be placed on chimneys, ornaments of church-spires, and rarely on the 
ground. 
+ Mr. Rushen is well-known to readers of this paper as one of its most reliable contributors; a keen 
student and enthusiastic lover of our British birds. 
