432 



ROSEATE TERN. 



graving of the nest on the spire was executed, the size of a watch 

 paper, and enough were sold to clear ten pounds to the engraver. 1 



A similar circumstance is recorded by Darwin, not of one rook only, 

 but a whole colony, building on the spire of Welborn Church, in Lin- 

 colnshire, on the authority of Mr. Ridgehill, the rector of the parish 

 in 1794. The parishioners affirmed that the rooks had built in the 

 spire, time immemorial. There was a tradition that formerly a rookery, 

 in some high trees, adjoined the churchyard, which being cut down, pro- 

 bably in the breeding season, the Rooks removed to the church, building 

 their nests on the outside of the spire, on the tops of windows, which, 

 by their projection a little from the spire, made them convenient room; 

 and when they could not find convenience there, they built on the 

 inside. " I saw," says the Rev. J. Darwin, of Carleton Scroop, " two 

 nests, made with sticks, on the outside and in the spire ; and Mr. 

 Ridgehill said there were always a great many." 2 A single rook's 

 nest is now (May, 1831) to be seen in the metropolis, on the tree at 

 the bottom of Wood-street, a few yards from Cheapside.* 



The Rook is partial to cultivated parts, as well as to the habitation of 

 man. It has been said that the bill of the Rook is less arched than that 

 of the crow, and that the tail feathers are rounded ; but these have 

 never appeared to us materially distinct. 



*If Levaillant is correct as to the species, it is a curious circum- 

 stance that this bird, at the Cape of Good Hope, should not have the 

 nostrils bare of feathers, as is usual in Europe ; an evident proof that 

 they have no occasion, in that climate, to search under ground for 

 their sustenance. 



The Rook does not deposit the food intended for its young in its 

 craw, and disgorge like the pigeon or dove tribe, but is furnished with 

 a small pouch at the root of the tongue, from whence the male ejects 

 the contents of its magazine, to feed the female during the incubating 

 season ; and both to feed their young. At this season the pouch may 

 be easily observed distended with food, as they come from the field to 

 their nest.* 



ROSE THRUSH.— A name for the Ouzel. 

 ROSEATE TERN (Sterna Dougalli, Montagu.) 

 Hirondelle de mer Dougalli, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 2. p. 738. — Roseate Tern, Flem. 

 Br. Anim. p. 143.— Mont. Supp Orn. Diet. 



The length of this species is fifteen inches and a half ; the bill one 

 inch five-eighths long to the feathers on the forehead, slender, slightly 



1 Bingley's Anim. Biogr. ii. 246, 6th edit. 2 Zoonomia, i. 341, 3d edit. 



