enabled, during three successive Januaries, to spend as many happy months. Here, among numerous other

objects of interest, multitudes of Rooks may be nightly seen assembling for the purpose of roosting. Those
who have not had an opportunity of visiting the woods which form so conspicuous a feature of this domain

can form no just conception of their extent; yet it is only on the trees immediately surrounding the mansion
that the Rooks congregate before retiring to rest. Here at the decline of every January day, when the hand
of the clock reaches four, small flights may be seen coming in from various points of the compass ; and as
the day departs, fresh flights arrive in quick succession. They usually assemble to the westward of the
house, and afterwards move a few hundred yards to the great trees skirting the principal drive; here mass
above mass may be seen perched on the topmost branches, where they sit contented for a short time, hold
a social conclave among themselves, and greet each small flight as it arrives from a distant part of the
country. From this second station the multitude usually remove to some high trees in the shrubbery,
where they hold another conclave, in which Daws take a lively part. By this time the shadows of night are
fast approaching ; still small companies continue to arrive, and augment the already numerous assemblage.
Those who are not acquainted with the ways of the bird might suppose that they would now remain
stationary until the coming day, but such is not the case ; for, just when it has become so dark that most
objects are undiscernible, the Rooks simultaneously leave the trees, and, with a rushing whirlwind-like
sound, fly off to a wood known by the name of the “Gonveor.” Into this they descend like a
shower of hail, each bird precipitating himself on to the part of the tree where he will spend the night,
without any bickering or squabbling for places: all is at once quiet ; the wood, with its living mass, is
wrapped in slumber. The Brown Owl now sends forth its hoot from Penkivel, and the piping note of
the Curlew may perhaps be heard from the waters of Lamorran. Save these, no earthly sound breaks the
stillness of these great woods. As the Rooks are late in seeking repose, so are they early in leaving their
resting-place in the morning; and before the sun has gilded the horizon, small flights may be observed
wending their way to their feeding-grounds, some to the neighbouring fields, some to the sides of the -river,
others to the Land’s End, and others, again, to even still greater distances in different directions. Their
daily routine accomplished, when the hour of four arrives, they again rendezvous around the house.

After the above account, to say that the Rook is a gregarious bird would be superfluous, were it not to
show how different all its actions and economy are from those of the Crow and its little cheerful
cackling associate the Jackdaw. The solitary Crow is a very early breeder, and constructs its nest near
the bole of a large tree; the gregarious Rooks heap nest upon nest on the branches; while the
aristocratic Jackdaw betakes itself for the purpose of breeding to the walls of old castles, church-
steeples, and precipitous rocks 3 It is also much later in its nidification than either of the others. The Crow
is a robber in every sense of the word ; the Rook pilfers also, and is doubtless very troublesome to the
farmer and the husbandman, and no unprotected garden that has trees with fruit and berries is safe from its
attacks. A goodly tree of walnuts is soon stripped, should a flock of Rooks once pay it a visit. Some salutary
chastisement is therefore often necessary to protect ourselves from its ravages ; but the wholesale poisoning
so much resorted to by the farmer, particularly when the bird has young, is both cowardly and cruel. Far
more manly would it be to make an example by now and then shooting a depredator, than to send the poor
birds home to die by the side of their nests of craving young ones. Painful, indeed, have been the scenes of
this kind that I have witnessed. Four, five, or six poor victims to poison have I found at one time beneath
the trees in the small rookery of Charles Pascoe Grenfell, Esq., at Taplow, while their young were starving
in the nests above my head. If our farmers are so blind to the usefulness of the bird, surely it is time that
the Legislature should step in and prevent the sale of poisoned corn, which, up to this time, might be
purchased at every seed-shop. The lout in a smock-frock who can raise sixpence may procure as much
strychnined wheat as, when scattered on the snow, will poison a pocketfal of Partridges, and it is probable
that many persons may have suffered from eating game thus destroyed ; it is time, therefore, that we bestir
ourselves in the matter.

On the Continent the Rook is a migratory bird, is nowhere so numerous as in England, and becames
gradually more scarce as we approach the Arctic circle. It is found in North Africa, Egypt, Asia Minor,
and Persia, and is said to extend its range as far east as Affghanistan. The Rook of China and Japan,
though very nearly allied, has certain specific differences, and, in my opinion, should be regarded as distinct.

The term “ black as a Crow ” does not apply to the Rook ; for the bird is clothed in beautiful tints of
purple and green. There is but little difference in the outward appearance of the sexes; both have the
denuded face after the bird has attained the age of maturity, while the young, during the first year of their
existence, have the nostrils covered with feathers, as in other members of the genus Corvus.

The eggs, which are laid in March, are four or five in number, and of a pale green, blotched all over with
dark greenish brown.

The figure on the accompanying Plate is nearly as large as life.