FOREHEAD OF THE ROOK. 



49 



an intolerable nuisance, the farmers in the district 

 said that I should freely have their good- will to do 

 so, provided I would only destroy a large rookery 

 in a neighbouring wood. On the other hand, the 

 villagers deplored this proposed destruction, as it 

 would deprive them of their annual supply of about 

 two thousand young rooks. Now the gardener 

 abominated them. He called them a devouring set ; 

 said that they spoiled all the tops of the trees ; and 

 that, for his part, he hoped they would all of them 

 get their necks broken. I myself, for divers reasons, 

 was extremely averse to sign their death-warrant. 

 Were I not fearful of being rebuked by grave and 

 solemn critics, I would here hazard a small quota- 

 tion : — 



" Mulciber in Trojam, pro Troja stabat Apollo ; 

 iEqua Venus Teucris, Pallas iniqua fuit." 



However, at present, it is riot my intention to 

 write the life of the rook, or even to inquire inci- 

 dentally into its vices or its virtues. I merely take 

 up the pen to-day, to show that the nudity on the 

 forehead of the rook, and at the base of both man- 

 dibles, cannot be caused by the bird's thrusting its 

 bill into the ground. 



Bewick is the only one in Professor Rennie's long 

 and fanciful list of " rudimental naturalists," " lite- 

 rary naturalists," and " philosophic naturalists, and 

 original observers," who gives us any thing satis- 

 factory concerning this nudity. He, sensible na- 

 turalist, cuts the knot through at one stroke, by 

 telling us that it is an " original peculiarity." Mon- 



E 



