BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
a pure cream colour."* Writing in 1853 of the large 
rookery at Jardine Hall, Sir William Jardine says : 
" Although we have never had an entire white or cream- 
coloured variety, scarcely a year passes without some 
young being observed with more or less white in the 
plumage, and in these the bill and feet, as well as the claws, 
are also white. "t Richard Bell of Castle O'er records an 
albino Rook, more cream-coloured than white, the legs and 
beak being equally cream-coloured and the eyes red. J 
Dr. Grierson thus records a variety of this bird. " Young 
bird with white markings on the feathers from Barjarg in 
Keir about 1865, presented by Mr. Thos. Maxwell, AUanton 
Mill, July, 1867 "§ ; and this specimen, as well as one of 
a brown Rook, are still to be seen in Grierson's Museum, 
Thornhill. Mr. R. Service is of the opinion that brown 
birds are not very rare, and that this variation only lasts 
till the adult plumage is attained. "A Rook of a dark 
chocolate-brown colour, with indistinct darker vermicu- 
lations when held to the light," is recorded by " Mabie 
Moss,"|| and a similar variety was shot by Mr. John 
Kennedy at Priestside (Cummertrees). 
A Rook with three legs was reported from Gribton 
(Holywood) in May, 1854,lf and abnormahties in the growth 
of the beak of this bird, caused presumably by being caught 
in a trap, are frequently recorded. 
Rooks, when they are seen diving and tumbling in the air 
towards evening, are popularly supposed to foretell rain. 
The following hst of rookeries in the county has been 
prepared mostly from answers to circulars sent by me 
throughout the county in May, 1908 : 
* Dumfries Courier , May 18th, 1847. 
t White's Selhorne, 1853, p. 37. 
X My Strange Pets, p. 221. 
§ Cat. Contents of Museum. 
II Dumfries Courier and Herald, May 30th, 1891. 
H Dumfries Courier, May 16th, 1854. 
K 
