return to their nests. Rooks are at once distinguished from
the other species of this family, already described, by their
habits of constantly living in flocks together at all seasons of
the year, and further evincing the sociability of their dispositions
by appearing to prefer situations in the immediate vicinity
of the abodes of man. There are mot wanting instances
where long-established rookeries near a mansion have "been
deserted by these birds, when it has happened that' the house
has been pulled down, or even abandoned as a habitation.
Their partiality to building their nests on any trees sufficiently
lofty, that are occasionally to be found in various
parts of crowded cities, must have been observed, not only in
London,, but elsewhere. In the spring of. 1838, a pair of
Rooks began to form a nest on the crown- which surmounts
tfle vane of St. Olive’s church, 'in Hart Street,; Crutched
Friars ; and many, persons remember the nest built on a
single and not very lofty tree near the comer of Wood Street
and Cheapside. This nest, though not used by the Rooks
since 1886, still remains in the tree. A few years since a
pair built their nest between the wings of the dragon of Bow
Church, and remained there till the steeple required repairs.
In the gardens of two noblemen in Curzon Street, May Fair,
a considerable number of Rooks have built for many-years,
and these probably received an addition at -the destruction of
the rookery in the gardens; of Carlton House. Mr. Black-
wall has recorded in the Zoological Journal, that three pairs
of Rooks built on some low black Italian poplars in a central
part of the town o f: Manchester, and returned to the same
place the following year. Mr. Bewick has noticed the
nest of a pair of Rooks which was built on the top of the
vane of the Exchange in Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; and though
the nest and' Us inhabitants were turned about witheyery-.
change of wind,: it was tenanted for ten successive' seasons
till the spire was taken down; and Mr. Macgillivray mens
tions that Rooks build every year in the heart of the city of
Edinburgh.
Rooks are supposed to exhibit a degree of sagacity unusual
in birds, in selecting or avoiding certain trees. Î At an old
mansion, not far from London, surrounded by a number of
very fine elms, a singular mark of the sagacity of Rooks was
recently observed. Many ’of; these trees had "become very
old-, and it was therefore determined to fell a few of them
every; year, and plant young ones in their place. The oldest
of the trees were accordingly condemned to be * Celled, and a
portion: of the bark taken ofr to-;indioafe^hose which were to
come down., These trees-were'koo^j forsaken -bythu Rooks,
and it was 'subsequently observed /that 'immediately after any
of the other -elms were marked *in a similar manner,' the Rooks
at once forsook the -trees, as if fully aware1 that the removal
of the- bark Was a notice for them to quit.” Another instance
' is thus noticed Mr. Wingate, steward to Mr.
Tèmpler of Lindridge? remarked in various years, that certain
trees were--not built upon by the Rooks if one nest were
built, the others destroyed it ; and he invariably found that
such trees were decayed, an d . were generally blown down
during- some storm.” I am disposed in these cases-to believe
that the. age* or incipient decay of the trees,, had produced
its effect on the upper branches, and that the Rooks
found thesè twigs less fit for their purpose than thoiisof more
healthy trees which-were close by.
The balance between injury or benefit derived from Rooks
by the agriculturist is a question which general opinion seems
to have settled, by considering that, the occasional injury "is
much more than counterbalanced by the amount of benefit
conferred in the consumption of thousands of destructive
grubs of the common cock-chaffer, the wire-worms of several
sorts, and, as mentioned by Mr. Selby, the larvae also of the
insect commonly known - by the name of harry-long-legs ;