330 THE ROOK. 
it to call to its assistance the aid of one or more of its fellows, before it can 
successfully cope with the larger creatures. Rabbits and hares are frequently 
the prey of this bird, which pounces on them as they steal abroad to feed, 
and while they are young is able to kill and carry them off without difficulty. 
The Crow also eats reptiles of various sorts, frogs and lizards being common 
dainties, and is a confirmed plunderer of other birds’ nests, even carrying 
away the eggs of game and poultry by the simple device of driving’ the 
beak through them anu flying away with them when thus impaled. Even the 
large egg of the 
duck has thus been 
stolen by the Crow. 
Sometimes it goes 
to feed on the sea- 
shore, and there 
finds plenty of food 
among the crabs, 
shrimps, and shells 
that are found 
near low - water 
mark, and _ ingeni- 
ously cracks the 
cRow.—(Corvus Corone.) harder shelled crea- 
: tures by flying with 
them to a great height and letting them fall upon a convenient rock. 
The nest of the Crow is invariably placed in some tree remote from the 
habitations of other birds, and is a structure of considerable dimensions, and 
very conspicuous at a distance. It is always fixed on one of the topmost 
branches, so that to obtain the eggs safely requires a steady head, a practised 
foot, and a ready hand. 
The materials of which the Crow’s nest is made are very various, but 
always consist of a founuation of sticks, upon which the softer substances 
are laid. The interior of the 
nest is made of grasses, 
fibrous roots, the hair of 
cows and horses, which the 
Crow mostly obtains from 
trees and posts where the 
cattle are in. the habit of 
rubbing themselves, mosses, 
and wool. 
The colour of the Crow 
is a uniform blue-black, like 
that of the raven, but varie- 
ties are known in which the 
feathers have been pied or 
even cream-white. 
THE most familiar of all 
the British Corvide is the 
common Rook, a bird which 
ROOK. —(Corvus frugilegus.) has attached itself to the 
habitations of mankind, and 
in course of time has partially domesticated itself in his dominions. 
The habits of the Rook are very interesting, and easily watched. Its 
extreme caution is very remarkable, when combined with its attachment to 
human homes, A colony of a thousand birds may form a rookery in a park, 
