CORVIDAE. 
226 * 
INSESS ORES. 
CONTROSTRES. 
CORVID.E. 
ROOK. 
Coimrs FRUGILEGUS. 
PLATE LIX. 
The Rook is one of those birds which, courting the 
society of man, has become almost as familiar to us as 
the domestic poultry which we rear. 
Its noisy presence in the spring adds one of the great 
charms to a country life; and how much of the venerable 
respectability of some of the finest old halls and man¬ 
sions in our land would be lost without it! The old 
rookery, which has for centuries been the gathering-place 
of generations of these birds, is almost as inseparable in 
our ideas from some of the old homes of England, as the 
stately avenue by which we approach them. 
During the first bright days which foretell the early 
opening of the spring, when the thrush alone has hailed 
its approaching glories with a glad song of welcome, the 
cheerful cawing of the Rooks, as they take possession of 
the well-known trees, breaks upon the ear, which is open 
to the simple music of Nature, with a peculiar charm. 
The jealous bickerings which take place, as each one is 
anxious to secure to itself some favourite bough, the fre¬ 
quent fights which occur before a proper understanding 
is established amongst them, and the general attack upon, 
and destruction of, the nest of some one which has broken 
