one case the members of a rookery seem always to keep
together, in another they will disperse, forming two or more
bands which feed and roost widely apart, only meeting in
the breeding-season at their common tenement; while again,
it is not very rare for all the Rooks of the district, belonging
to many distinct settlements, to collect in autumn and pass
the winter in one grand convention. But besides these more
obvious differences, some of which doubtless depend on the
capabilities of the locality, many others may easily be observed.
In one rookery trees of several kinds will be used
alike, in another the nests are strictly confined to those of
the same species, or even to such of them as have the same
habit of growth; and so on with regard to minor details far
too numerous to mention in a work like the present. A
good monograph of the Rook could not fail to be as interesting
as its compilation would be laborious.
This bird is probably nowhere more common than in
England, Ireland and the south of Scotland; but decreases
in numbers towards the north, though of late it has established
itself in places where it was, as Mr. R. Gray remarks,
before only known as an uncertain autumn-visitant. Thus a
large rookery at Dunvegan in Skye, the most western Scottish
breeding-station, was only established a few years before
1870. In 1864 its first settlements were formed in the
western part of Ross and Cromarty, and, according to Mr.
Harvie Brown’s information to the Editor, a year or two after
in West Sutherland. In the Outer Hebrides it is only known
as an occasional straggler, though sometimes in large flocks,
from the mainland in winter, and its appearance in Orkney,
Shetland and the Faeroes is of the same kind.* From what
Jonas Hallgrimsson says of certain birds of the genus which
have at times visited Iceland, they must have been Rooks,
but the species has not been absolutely determined there.
In Norway it occurs most irregularly, large flocks sometimes
appearing chiefly in the south and in autumn or winter, but
some of them stopping to breed. It seems to have been shot
* An example is said (Zool. s.s. p. 455) to haye been taken at sea 200 miles
from the north of Scotland.
in Helgeland on the west coast, and Herr Collett has
recorded one killed in spring on the Pasvig in East Fin-
mark, a locality that it may have reached from the interior,
for Wolley observed it at least once at Muonioniska
at that season, and it has been seen in summer and
known to winter at Quickjock; but in Sweden, where it is
generally a summer-visitant, it is almost entirely confined to
the/^outh anct to the islands of (Eland and Gottland. In
Finland it is of irregular occurrence, and whether it breeds
in that country is unknown. In most parts of Russia it is
very common and it reaches Archangel, where it breeds, not
in large numbers however. Further to the eastward its
range is not so northerly, but it extends to the Upper
Irtish and the Ob, though it is not recorded from elsewhere
in Siberia. It is found breeding throughout Turkestan,
and in winter visits Affghanistan, Cashmere and the
Punjab. It inhabits Persia to the north of Ispahan, and,
Major St. John noticed a considerable rookery at Casbin.
It appears in the Caucasus and in winter in Palestine,
congregating, says Canon Tristram, in large numbers.
about the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem. At the same
season it visits Egypt, but, according to Capt. Shelley, is
not found above Memphis. In Algeria its appearance is
accidental, and it is unknown to Col. Irby from Morocco.
Throughout the south of Europe and the islands of the.
Mediterranean it is a winter-visitant, examples observed
there being mostly young birds of the year. The southern
limits of its breeding-range are not at all clearly known ;
but in Italy, Lombardy, Yenetia and the country about
Modena alone fall within them. In no part of Spain, not
even the north, as Gfallicia, is it otherwise than a winter-
visitant. In France the line of demarcation has not been
drawn, for while breeding commonly in the north it is but
an immigrant in the south. In Southern Germany (Baden,
Wurtemberg and Bavaria) it is chiefly known as a winter-
bird, but a fewr breed in some places, as is also the case in
Carinthia, but not in Styria. It is recorded as breeding
in Bohemia and Galizia, and plentifully in the Crimea.