ROOK 101 
very scarce bird. He says that he was about to conclude 
that there were none in Man, but was informed that a small 
rookery had existed near the Nunnery, but had been done 
away with, and he wondered where another suitable breeding- 
place could be found, ‘a wood, a lofty grove, or even a holt 
of trees being an object very rare to be met with’”* In 
Robertson’s Tour (2nd ed., 1794; the observation was made 
in 1791) he states: ‘A few solitary Rooks had perched 
their nests on the summit of the trees’ (at Kirk Braddan). 
By 1826, however, as shown by Drinkwater’s Map, a good 
many small plantations existed, and Mr. Moore’s History 
states that it was about the commencement of last century 
that systematic tree-planting began. The Rook is now an 
abundant and flourishing species, in spite of the bad name 
it bears among farmers, and although it is so generally 
regarded as injurious that an appeal addressed a few years 
ago to owners of rookeries led to something like a concerted 
attempt to thin its numbers. 
Mr. Crellin, however, thinks (Y. Z. M, iii. 124) that it 
is generally acknowledged that they also do a great amount 
of good, ‘Farmers, he adds, ‘have told me that they have 
watched them walking along the turnip ridges shortly after 
they have been thinned, carefully examining the young 
plant, and pulling up only those that have been attacked 
by the worm.’ 
Rooks may be seen everywhere, not only in the ploughed 
fields and pastures, but among the mountain grass and 
heather, and on the tide-rocks and sands of the bays, even 
on the piers and promenades of Douglas, and on the isolated 
distinguish it from the Rook. We were used to seeing it in Scotland.’ This 
evidence from residents who have such opportunities for observing, and are keenly 
interested in wild birds, makes it to my mind certain that at least occasionally 
the species or form occurs here. 
1 Elsewhere, however, Townley mentions that in the north the houses had 
trees round them. 
