BIEDS. 
149 
A very old-established rookery at Dimrobin, with a 
colony in 1879 of about 300 nests, built upon ash, elm, and 
Scotch fir. They have been kept in moderate numbers, and 
have neither increased nor decreased much. They have 
other roosting-places. 
A rookery, — a few years old only, established at Skibo 
with a colony in 1879 of under 100 nests, and built on Scotch 
fir and ash, has since increased. Eoost elsewhere. 
At Crakaig, — age of rookery unknown, — about 100 nests 
in 1879, in ash-trees ; increasing. 
At Tongue, — established about 1855, — a colony in 1879 
of about 500 nests in Scotch fir. Increasing, and usually 
roosting at another wood, migrating daily to Far-out Head 
for food during hard winters. 
At Kirkton, rooks first appeared in 1860, the first pair 
breeding amon'gst rocks at Bighouse Bay, and afterwards 
taking to the old fir-woods at Kirkton : they originally 
came from "Westfield, in Caithness. In 1879 there were 
about 500 nests, and they were still increasing; these birds 
generally roost in the same wood in which their nests are. 
By returns of migration schedules in 1883 from Stoir- 
head, large flocks of rooks (or " wood crows ") came daily to 
Stoir to feed between the 1st and 30th of August, and in 
1884 between the 1st and 25th August. No doubt these 
belonged to the Cama Loch rookery.^ 
Common, and resident, breeding in almost every suitable 
plantation, or clump of old trees in the county, such as 
those at Lyth, Watten, Latheronwheel, Langwell, Forss, 
"Westfield, and Brawl. A few years ago a small colony 
used to breed in the trees at Sibster House, near Wick 
(0. MSS.). 
Since Mr. Osborne's time the poor rook has been much' 
persecuted, principally by the gamekeepers, who, in Caith- 
ness, almost more than any other county in Scotland, wage 
war upon egg-destroying vermin. The rook has rather a 
Mark the curious approximation of the dates of the visits, in the two years. 
