136 • 



ROUT OF THE USURPERS. 



KENNETH McLEAN, 

 Harrogate. 



During the spring- of 1903 in many rookeries the nests were so 

 scattered by the tearing west winds that the birds found it was 

 not a matter of rearranging- (as usual) but of rebuilding. In so 

 doing many chose more sheltered positions, and, to obtain such, 

 some wandered a considerable distance from their fellows. One 

 nest, built about 200 yards from a large rookery, I noticed 

 several times during the winter and early this spring. On the 

 17th of March I was in the neighbourhood of this nest and 

 heard a terrible jangle of caws which I at once interpreted 

 into sounds of strife. I managed unobserved to get within 

 a short distance of the disputants, and soon learnt the cause of 

 the discordant altercation. Evidently a pair of Carrion Crows 

 (Corone corone) in passing had come across this solitary nest, 

 and, thinking it suitable for their domestic duties, had decided 

 to appropriate it, and were making some little alterations when 

 the original owners came upon the scene, and immediately 

 attacked the usurpers. The Crows held their position manfully 

 (or crowfully), but, unfortunately for them, the noise of battle 

 reached the ears of the Rooks busy in the neighbouring rookery, 

 and they swept down in such overwhelming numbers that the 

 Crows were compelled to beat a hasty retreat. The Rooks 

 pursued them for some distance and then returned. 



The pair, however, to which the nest had originally belonged 

 were not allowed to take possession, for the whole colony 

 immediately set to work and pulled it to pieces. Stick by stick 

 it was carried away to the adjacent rookery. Probably those 

 wliicli took the sticks considered they had a right to them in 

 payment for their assistance in the fight ; or perhaps they 

 addressed the owners of this outside nest somewhat in this 

 fashion, ' We are not going to let you build here, where you 

 will be pestered with Crows and other dangerous characters. 

 ^\nl must come within the precincts of the rookery, where 

 you will be protected, and where you will have to do your 

 part in promoting the common weal of the Trypanocorax 

 Jrngilcirus.' 



Naturalist, 



