THE ROOK. 
unfortunately peeped into Kirk Alloway. Fo- 
reigners tell us that on these nights Englishmen are 
prone to use the knife, or a piece of twisted hemp, 
to calm their agitated spirits. For my own part, I 
must say that I have an insuperable repugnance to 
such anodynes ; and, were a host of blue devils, 
conjured up by Novembers fogs, just now to assail 
me, I would prefer combating the phantoms with 
the weapons of ornithology, rather than run any 
risk of disturbing <ithe economy of my jugular vein^ 
by a process productive of very unpleasant sensa- 
tions, before it lulls one to rest. 
According to my promise, I will now pen down a 
few remarks on the habits of the rook, which bird, 
in good old sensible times, was styled frugilegus. It is 
now pronounced to he prcedatorius. Who knows but 
that our Great Ones in Ornithology may ultimately 
determine to call it up to the house of hawks ? 
If this useful bird were not so closely allied to the 
carrion crow in colour and in shape, we should see 
it sent up to the tables of the rich as often as we 
see the pigeon. But prejudice forbids the appearance 
of broiled rook in the lordly mansion. If we wish 
to partake of it, we must repair to the cottage of the 
lowly swain, or, here and there, to the hall of the 
homely country squire, whose kitchen has never been 
blessed by the presence of a first-rate cook, and 
whose yearnings for a good and wholesome dish are 
not stifled by the fear of what a too-highly polished 
world will say. 
There is no wild bird in England so completely 
gregarious as the rook, or so regular in its dailv 
K 2 
