58 



POUCH OF THE ROOK. 



In my little peaceful valley, where the report of 

 the keeper's gun is never heard, and where the 

 birds are safe from the depredations of man, the 

 ornithologist has free access to pursue his favourite 

 study. Towards the middle of May, he can see 

 here the carrion crow, the jay, the magpie, and the 

 jackdaw, filling their mouths with grubs and worms, 

 the weight of which forces the pliant skin under 

 the bill into the shape of a little round ball, just of 

 the same appearance as that which is observed in 

 the rook, with this trifling difference, that the lump 

 is feathered in the firsts and bare of feathers in the 

 last. 



While I am writing this, there may be seen here 

 a wild duck hatching her eggs in a nest upon a 

 sloping wooded bank; while a carrion crow is hatch- 

 ing hers in a fir tree ten yards from the spot? and a 

 windhover hawk is performing the same function in 

 a fir tree about six yards on the other side of the 

 duck. Forty yards from where the carrion crow is 

 hatching, may be seen a barn owl sitting on her 

 eggs in the hollow of an oak tree ; and, at twenty 

 yards' distance from the windhover, another white 

 or barn owl has formed her nest in the decayed 

 recesses of a tremendous oak. Though all these 

 families keep the peace, I do not wish it to be un- 

 derstood that they are upon visiting terms. In 

 another part, a long-eared owl is rearing her young 

 in the last year's nest of a carrion crow. When the 

 parent bird is asleep, you can see very distinctly 

 the erect feathers on the head : but the moment she 

 gets a sight of you, down go the erect feathers, and 



