[Colour illustration of a black bird on a tree branch. Forest and cottage in background]

[image caption] [italics] J. Gould & H.C. Richter, del et lith                             The 6th and last of a series of British Birds [/italics] 
                                                  ROOK â€“ Corvus f. frugilegus.
[italics]       "Then rooks, the guttural talkers, three times or four repeat
                     A clear cool note, and often up there in the treetop cradles,
                     Charmed by some unfamiliar sweet impulse we cannot guess at,
                     Gossip among the leaves : they leave when rain is over
                     To visit again that baby brood, their darling nests."
                                                       From Cecil Day Lewis' translation of the Georgics of Virgil.  [/italics] [/image caption]