ROOK. Class IL 



same, the plumage of both being glossed with a 

 rich purple. But what chiefly distinguishes* 

 the rook from the crow is the bill ; the nostrils, 

 chin, and sides of that and the mouth being in 

 old birds white and bared of feathers, by often 

 thrusting the bill into the ground in search of the 

 erucce of the Dor-beetle y\ the rook then, in- 

 stead of being proscribed, should be treated as 

 the farmer's friend ; as it clears his ground from 

 caterpillars, which do incredible damage by eat- 

 ing the roots of the corn. In Suffolk and part 

 of Norfolk, the farmers find it their interest to 

 encourage these birds. Mr. Matthews, a most 

 excellent and observant farmer in Berkshire, 

 assured Mr. Stilling fleet, that the rooks one 

 year, while his men were hoeing a field of tur- 

 nips, settled on a spot where they were not at 

 work, and that the crop proved very fine in 

 that part, whereas in the remainder it failed.^; 

 Rooks are sociable birds, living in vast flocks : 

 crows go only in pairs. They begin to build 

 their nests in March ; one bringing materials, 

 Avhile the other watches the nest, lest it should 



* Another distinction arises from the form of the tail feathers, 

 the extremities of which are much more rounded in the Rook 

 than in the Crow. Ed. 



f Scarabaeus melolontha. Lin.syst. 351. Rcessl, ii. Tab. i. 

 List. Goed. 265. 



X Stillingfleee s Tracts, 2i edit. 175. 



