Coming nearer home, it is very numerous in Belgium, and
would be so,‘according to Mr. Labouchere, but for the persecution
it suffers, in Holland. In Denmark it is a summer-
visitant, and throughout Northern Germany it is more or less
abundant though its settlements are often wide apart.
The anterior part of the beak is black; in the adult its
base, the forehead, lores, chin and throat are bare, the skin
being scabrous, and whitish-grey : the irides dark-brown :
the whole plumage black, richly glossed with purple on the
upper parts, but particularly on the head and neck, the
feathers of which are soft and decomposed, while none
are pointed; the lower surface of the wing- and tail-quills
shining dark greyish-black: legs, toes and claws, black.
The Rook varies considerably in size, the whole length of
a male being from eighteen to twenty-one inches : that here
described being nineteen inches and a half; from the carpal
joint to the tip of the longest primary, twelve inches and a
quarter; the first primary three inches shorter than the
second; the second an inch shorter than the fourth, which
is as much longer than the third as that is than the fifth.
The female is. frequently, in her whole length, two inches
shorter than the male, and her plumage is less brilliant.
Young birds of the year resemble the adult; but their
plumage has little gloss, and the base of the beak, the face
and throat are feathered until the first moult, after which
they generally become bare, though examples, especially if
kept in confinement, sometimes retain the clothing of these
parts for a year or more.
White and other varieties of the Rook occur as often as
of most other species. Such as arise simply from want of
colour, due probably to defective secretions which are often
supplied as the bird gains constitutional strength, need not
be here noticed; but some examples occasionally appear
which seem to claim more attention. Hunt mentions
(Br. Orn. ii. p. 39) one “ of a light ash-colour, most beautifully
mottled all over with black, and the quill and tail
feathers elegantly barred.” Examples with light spots at
the end of the feathers have been, noticed by Mr. Jenyns and
others. Mr. Hancock figures such a specimen, in which
“ the whole of the plumage is black, each feather having a
greyish bar close to the extremity; on the under parts of
the body the bars are narrow, but on the upper parts they
are wide and very conspicuous; the quills are likewise found
marked in the same manner, and the tail feathers show
slight indications of similar bars. The marking is quite
symmetrical, and suggests the appearance of the spotting
of the first or nest plumage so general in the Passeres.”
This gentleman says he has seen two more specimens of this
interesting variety, and others are known to the Editor.
They are all nestlings, and the bird mentioned by Hunt,
being kept in confinement, lost all its mottled feathers at
its first moult and assumed the ordinary black plumage.
The hint thrown out by Mr. Hancock seems to supply an
explanation of this aberration, which may perhaps be regarded
as an example of what many naturalists term “ Reversion”—
that is, a tendency occasionally exhibited in a species to
return to what was in all likelihood the appearance of a
remote ancestor.
Malformations of the beak are by no means uncommon
among birds, and in the present species a monstrous growth
of the horny covering (as figured on the next page) has been
frequently noticed, the more so since it has been supposed
to bear on a question for a long time discussed and not yet
entirely set at rest.
This question is whether the nudity of the adult Rook’s
face is produced by the abrasion of the feathers through the
constant act of digging in the ground for food, or whether it
arises as a natural peculiarity. Waterton, Mr. Blackwall,
Mr. Knox and others have made a few trials, which from
their inconclusive nature are hardly to be termed experiments,
of keeping young Rooks in confinement to find whether,
when the birds have no opportunity of digging, the feathers
at the base of the beak will yet fall off. This it seems they
will do, but not always, and all that appears to have been
proved is that captivity in some cases retards this external
sign of maturity as it retards many others in many other