100 cotr y id j :.
The female is frequently, in her -whole length, ffewo inches
shorter than the male, and has * dess brilliancy in the
plumage.
Young birds of the year resemble the adult'female,; but'
the feathers at/the base of the beak, projecting, forward oyer
the. nostrils, are not replaced after the first moult, and two nr
three otheisbirds (not British j |are how -known to exhibit-this
peculiarity, which -has 'been, considered, specific; I
I Whifp|g pied, end cream-coloured- Varieties! of „the. "Rook
sometimpsuoccur. Mr. Hunt, of Norwich, says,»“ A-gekftE|
man of his acquaintance, had-in 1816 a young Rook of a light
ash-colour,: most beautifully mottled "all coyer with blacky and
the quill and tail-feathers elegantly barred. Tha-^Gurjnsity-
he was naturally anxious toikeep ; whenupon the-bird moulting,
all'its mottled plumage Vanished, .entirely,—it .became a
je t black Rook, and' in this^staie was-suffered,, 1%'join its
- sable tribe, as a fit companion,- in the-fields.” • This._agre.es
with my own observations. Accidental varieties -will g'en^
r&lly be found to;tie smaller-and weaker buds than thpskSwhich
are truly characteristic of the,-species. As these. ypftngiJurds'
increase in age, and gameeoristitutional. p o.wer, ‘ftheu secretion's
become perfect, and the plumage assumes its. natural ^ o u r s .
The assumption'of white feathers by old birds is probably the
effect of the converse operation of this .physiological .law.
Malformations of the beak are by ho means uncommon
among the species of:the g e n u s p a r t i c u l a r l y in the
Rook, (see page 90,) and some remarks by John Blackwall,
Esq. in his Researches in Zoology, refer to a question not
yet entirely set at rest.
% A Rook; preserved in the Manchester Museum, has its
mandibles slight! yj~as not
to have interfered materially with the mode--of procuring
food usually employed by (b it, species, as is clearly evinced
by the denuded state of the nostrils and the anterior part of
BOOK. 101
the' head, both pm-which are entirely destitute of feathers.
' Another/'’specimen, in '’tbesvpossession of Mr. R. Wood, a
zesdoT^coMector'-of ofej^^ -in natural history, residing in
M&Kchester, has- the mandibles great!y*;elongated, and much
curved. Now it is evident that’ the bird, possessing a bill
thiks' formed, ^©,bul'd no%?t®ust rik into the ’ground in search of
worms and~th|||afym iplMsectss, ‘as tti^ Rook is known to do
habitually';* and'^'acbordingly^ the plumage a t ’the base of the
bilPbf this^ndivrdual, and the bristly-feathers which cover
itf7 nostrils, are TeryVconspicudhs; not having sustained the
sli-^4^»®j ury. Thelopinlon; entertained "by many persons,
't#ktj'the naked condition<%of ^the. nostrils and anterior part of
the b&adrik'an original-peisuliarity in&tfie Rook, Is thus satis-
faptfpmy proved* to f§et^%orrect: 4 n d e li|th e fact; that young
Rpiks- -exhibit n of deficiency’in efel particulars, is. sufficiently
conclusive1 on^tbis ?point ;A but the possibility of an entire
specij&beifig' endowed'with an instinct destructive of a usual
poriimribf”its organization, was probably never Contemplated
lip thfise^bbser-veisit is' hotf surprising, therefore, that- the
deduced from a partial view of the subject .Should
be!' erroneous.”