ROOK.
Corvus frugilegus, Linn.
CORVUS FRUGILEGUS, Linn.
Corvus frugilegus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 156 (1766) ; Naum. ii.
p. 78 ; Macg. i. p. 535 ; Hewitson, i. p. 226 ; Yarr. ed. 4,
ii. p. 289 ; Dresser, iv. p. 551.
Corbeau-Freux, French ; Saat-Krahe, German ; Graja,
Spanish.
It is not probable that I can tell any of my countrymen,
who care sufficiently about birds to look at this
work, anything that they do not already know about
this well-known and most respectable of British Crows,
although I confess that I am myself anxious for information
upon certain points concerning his little ways
and customs. Why, for instance, do the very great
majority of old Rooks, with their young that escape the
annual shooting, leave their breeding-localities altogether
for several weeks during the summer ? and whither do
they betake themselves ? At Lilford a very large number
of Rooks breed in scattered colonies within a short
distance of the house, and, from the beginning of October
till the nesting-time arrives, one of our coverts is the
roosting-resort of many thousands of these birds that