settlement being deserted when the neighbouring dwelling
has been pulled down, or even abandoned as a habitation.
This seeming partiality is carried to such an extent that
Rooks’ nests are occasionally found in various parts of the
most crowded cities, and even in London itself, though here
the extension of buildings in every direction, by widening
the distance of the birds’ feeding-ground, has lessened and
will go on lessening their numbers. The large rookery that
existed in the Temple Gardens and furnished Goldsmith
with opportunities of observing its “ policy” came to an end
in the early part of this century*, and that in Carlton House
Gardens in 1827, though its evicted owners are said to have
removed to Spring Gardens. The rookery also in Doctors’
Commons has ceased to exist, but that in Gray’s Inn Garden
still flourishes and is now the largest in London, containing
about thirty nests. Until the year 1835, when the steeple
of Bow Church was repaired, a pair had their nest between
the wings of the dragon forming the vane at its top. Then
they removed to a plane-tree near the corner of Wood Street
and Cheapside, where they remained for some years, a second
nest being also built in it in 1845. In 1838, a pair began
a nest on the crown which surmounts the vane of St. Olave’s,
Crutched Friars. In the garden of Chesterfield House
there was for many years a considerable rookery, containing
about fifty nests in 1846, but this is now built over, though
the adjoining garden of Wharncliffe House still harbours
some ten nests. There are besides several other settlements
of the species within the limits of London.! Mr. Blackwall
recorded (Zool. Journ. v. p. 10) that for two years three
* Mr. Harting has kindly pointed out that in an anonymous ‘ History of
Epsom ’ this rookery is said (p. 130) to have originated in. birds taken from
Woodcote Green in Surrey by Sir William Northey, and to have existed in 1825.
Rennie however wrote of it in 1831 (ylrchit. B. p. 220) as being “ long
abandoned
f Thus Dr. Hamilton mentions (Zool. 1878, pp. 194-196) rookeries at Holland
House, in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Hereford Square, Marylebone Road,
Gower Street and Gordon Place. In 1831, says Rennie, there was a rookery at
the back of Whitehall; according to Jennings (Ornithologia, p. 75) there was
one for many years in the churchyard of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East; and Mr.
Harting says that in 1876 there was a nest in Bermondsey churchyard.
pairs built on some poplars in a central part of Manchester,
and Bewick noticed a nest on the vane of the Exchange, in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which was tenanted for ten successive
seasons till the spire was taken down; while Macgillivray
speaks of several small rookeries in the heart of Edinburgh.*
Rooks are often credited with a peculiar degree of sagacity
in selecting or avoiding certain trees, and it has been more
than once asserted that any which have been marked in the
usual way for felling are abandoned by the birds ; but stronger
evidence is required before the naturalist can accept this as
the sole warning upon which they have acted. There may
be better grounds for supposing that they leave trees the
insecurity of which is proved by subsequent storms. The
Author is inclined in these cases to think that the age, or
incipient decay of the trees, had affected the upper branches,
and that the Rooks found them less fit for their purpose than
those of more healthy trees which were close by. Other
kinds of knowledge are also ascribed to Rooks. They are
commonly believed to forecast the weather; and to strengthen
their nests against a coming gale of wind, while several
stories profess to shew their yet more marvellous acquaintance
with human affairs, manifested by a change of abode,
on the death or arrival of a proprietor who has disturbed
or favoured their interests—some of these tales being supported
by a curious coincidence of events.!
The balance between injury or benefit derived from Rooks
* An instance of Rooks building in cliffs is given by De Montbeillard, and
their occupying for many years the church of Walhourn in Lincolnshire is noticed
by Erasmus Darwin (Zoonomia, Ed. 3, i. p. 247). Mr. G. Norman mentions (Zool.
p. 1366) two nests on housetops at Kingston-on-Hull in 1846, and Mr. Stevenson
(Zool. s.s. p. 1910) a nest attempted to he built in 1869 on the church at Swaff-
ham in Norfolk.
f The particulars of two such coincidences have been kindly communicated
to the Editor, through Mr. Knox, by Lord Home. In 1824 the late
Lord Home was desirous of destroying a rookery near Coldstream, and, after
three years, effected his purpose. During the remainder of his life not a single
Rook’s nest was built on the property, but in 1842, the first spring after his
death, the birds returned, not indeed to their former haunts, but to some old
trees within a mile of the place. A similar thiDg happened at Douglas Castle.
The Rooks had been driven away in 1841. In 1857 the present Lord Home
went to live there, and in the following year they returned to their old quarters.