ROOKS. 
203 
cessity of looking after these autumnal repairs, as they do not 
use the same old nests, hut huild entirely new ones. 
Rooks, we have seen, will occasionally remove, and colonize 
other situations at a distance from their late frequented 
abodes; and, as some persons may wish to establish a rookery 
in their own immediate neighbourhood, it has been said, that 
by looking out for a Magpie’s nest near the wished-for spot, 
and exchanging her eggs for those of a Rook, the desirable 
point may be accomplished; the young Rooks having no 
other associations than those of the tree in which they were 
bred, and being sure of a harsh reception, if not of being 
picked to death, if venturing to join any neighbouring rookery 
in which they have no family connexions. In the Spring of 
1847, a rather singular strife took place between the Rooks 
which for many years occupied a large tree in the garden of 
Westhill Terrace, Sheffield, and a pair of stranger Rooks 
which had established themselves on a neighbouring tree, 
illustrative of the jealousy entertained by these birds, of in- 
terlopers not immediately belonging to their own clan. The 
stranger birds had almost completed their nest, when their 
neighbours, disapproving of a new or rival colony, watched 
their opportunity, and descending in a body, wreaked their 
vengeance on the nest, which they soon destroyed. Several 
times was this scene repeated; at length, however, profiting 
by experience, it was deemed advisable for one of the birds to 
remain constantly at the nest, to repel any attempts that 
might be made upon it by their enemies. So rigorously, in- 
deed, was this caution observed, that the one remaining at 
home was supplied with food by the other. Many attempts 
were, notwithstanding, made upon it, hut the united energies 
of these two persevering birds enabled them to rear their 
nestlings in spite of the determined opposition of the original 
possessors of the adjacent rookery. 
The habits of a Jackdaw are known to everybody ; where- 
ever found, he is the same active, hustling, cheerful, noisy 
fellow. Whether in the depth of a shady wood, “ remote 
from cities and from towns,” or whether established in the 
nooks and niches of some Giothic cathedral-tower, in the 
