632 Birds. 



year. Some of these have by this time lost a small portion of the 

 bristle-like feathers which cover the nostrils, but the plumage on the 

 throat is still nearly perfect, nor does it disappear until after the bird 

 has found a help-mate in the ensuing spring, when its keen sense of 

 parental duty, and the calls of a hungry family, urge it to dig from 

 morning till night in search of the grub of the cockchafer, and the 

 deep-set germ of the lately planted potato, and induce it to convert 

 the dilatable skin of the throat into a convenient hunting-pouch, the 

 naked scabrous appearance of which can be no mystery to any one 

 who has narrowly observed the habits of the bird at this season of the 

 year. 



See him returning to his nest with steady flight, — his pouch ap- 

 parently well filled, and projecting, pelican-like, from beneath his 

 beak : many a well bruised beetle and savoury grub is there; it seems 

 to be distended to the utmost, and to be incapable of containing ano- 

 ther morsel — not so — in passing over yonder field his keen eye has 

 detected a lump of old manure, which had escaped the notice of his 

 fellows — he alights on it, and for some time his efforts to break through 

 the hard external crust appear to be fruitless; at last he effects an 

 opening, and by repeatedly plunging in his head, he succeeds in pe- 

 netrating to a considerable depth, while at every blow the front of the 

 well filled pouch comes into rough contact with the edges of the aper- 

 ture — one or two more victims are then secured — he is apparently 

 satisfied, and just about to fly, when suddenly his anxiety to obtain 

 "one" grub "more" causes him to redouble his exertions, and secure 

 an additional prize before he leaves the field. 



Let any one examine the denuded portion of the throat of an old 

 rook with a magnifying glass, and the stumps of the feathers may be 

 easily discerned. In some instances which have come under my no- 

 tice, they were even perceptible to the naked eye. 



Young rooks, as I have said, do not lose the feathers on the throat 

 until after the assumption of parental duties ; in fact, before that pe- 

 riod, they are not expert diggers, except where the ground is soft and 

 easily penetrated : and until their beaks have acquired the firmness 

 and temper of age, they may be seen, even at a very late period of the 

 year, with outstretched quivering pinions and tremulous voice, soli- 

 citing a morsel of food from the veterans of the colony : but having 

 once acquired the art, they continue to dig more or less at all seasons 

 and in all soils, and thus the abraded plumage has no chance of being 

 renewed during the lifetime of the bird. 



Other species of the genus Corvus have undoubtedly the power, to 



