NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 95 
is manifestly absurd. This class, of which our barndoor fowls are types— as their 
name (scratchers) implies — get their living and feed their young by scralchin^ la 
the earth. Pigeons have weak legs and toes, quite useless for scratching or running, 
in which the Kasores— partridges, pheasants, &c. for instance— excel. Birds of 
that class roost and nest on the ground — pigeons on trees. The Rasores lay 
many eggs — pigeons two only. The Rasores are polygamous — pigeons mono- 
gamous. In fact, Mr. Yarrell might just as well have classed them with the 
Falconidre or the Corvidae as with the Rasores, with which they have not any 
one point of affinity. 
Geoiuie Roofer. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Rooks in Kensington Gardens. — Mr. T. Digby Pigott, whose book 
on London birds we noticed last December, writes to the Times : — “ If, in these 
crowded days, you can spare a corner in your columns to record proceedings ot a 
London Parliament other than that now occupied with high matters at West- 
minster, it may interest some of your readers to learn — if they have not ahead}- 
discovered the fact for themselves — that the rooks have decreed that nesting is 
again to be allowed in Kensington Gardens. 
“The Kensington rookery in its palmy days contained a hundred nests or 
more ; and as lately as 1878 or 1879 from thirty to forty were commonly to be 
counted. But the wholesale felling of ancestral elms a few years ago was a slight 
which could not be passed over, and since then — until last year, when one pair 
built obscurely in the south-west corner — not a rook has, I believe, bred in the 
Gardens. At the present time there are eleven nests in a more or less ‘ forward 
state of preparation;’ and, as the sun set behind the Palace this evening, some 
tifteen couples were indulging in their usual games in the air before settling in for 
the night. 
“The tribal laws which regulate the family affairs of rooks are stringent and 
rigidly enforced ; and though an inexperienced pair may every now and then be 
foolish enough to fancy themselves free to build outside the bounds prescribed, it is 
commonly only to learn to their cost that, with birds, laws are made to be obeyed. 
The numbers of the new colony, the abandonment of the last year’s nest in the 
corner, and the bold occupation of the old site, are proofs presumptive that the 
return of the exiles is with the sanction of constituted authority, and we may look 
forward with confidence to seeing the re-established rookery increased in size next 
spring.'’ 
Rooks at Hampstead. — The suggestion that a census should be taken 
of all new nests this year in London rookeries is a good one, but I am inclined to 
think that in some of the larger rookeries it would be somewhat difficult to carry 
out. A strict observation would have to be made daily, for rooks are most 
capricious in their nesting operations, often beginning a nest, and pulling it to 
pieces when finished, or deserting it for another locality. They also make use of 
the last season’s nests, which they often renovate ; in some instances they build 
on the top of one of the old nests, making it a difficult matter to know whether it 
is inhabited or not. During the last few years I have noticed a strong migratory 
tendency among the rooks of Hampstead. The largest rookery at present is close 
to the High Street and now contains fourteen nests, all of which appear to be 
inhabited. This rookery two or three years ago was almost deserted, when 
several new nests appeared in the trees at the bottom of Haverstock Hill, built no 
doubt by the recruits from Hampstead. Not finding this place all they desired 
they have been gradually coming back to Hampstead, and this year there has not 
been one nest make at Haverstock Hill. Last year for the fust time three nests 
were built in the elms at the top of the grove near the White Stone Pond, 
Hampstead, which seemed a suitable place for a rookery to be established ; but for 
reasons known to themselves they have this year deserted the place, and have 
