the examination of any slaughtered birds, that by exhibiting the food they contained, my friend might be convinced of the evil of his ways in destroying them; but as usual in such cases, none were ever sent to me. The propriety of having boys to guard the lately-sown wheat, where the depredations are perhaps the most serious, was suggested, but the very early hour was said to be an insuperable obstacle. The rooks could, however, at trifling expense, be watched, and frightened away by boys at this time, and when the grain is lodged.* Such precaution taken, very little harm indeed could these birds justly be accused of doing. One of the inimitable tail-pieces to Bewick's Birds (ed. 1832, vol. i. p. 93), points to the inutility of one kind of scare-crow, where a rook is represented peering curiously, but without the least fear, at the wretched effigy of humanity, erected to frighten away the species. In newly planted potato-fields, &c., I have remarked hosts of these birds feeding, while among them hung their gibbeted brethren, only lately killed.† At the more genial period of the year, flocks of rooks occasionally visit the mountain pastures near Belfast. Wm. Sinclaire, Esq., of Milltown, Belfast, has informed me, that towards the end of autumn, for a dozen years or more successively, after the harvest was gathered in, numbers of rooks came every morning for about a fortnight, to the pine-trees (Pinus sylvestris) in that district, for the sake of the cones, which they plucked from the branches and carried away. When the cones could not be detached in the ordinary manner, they seized them in their bills, and launched into the air, that the weight of their * The Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar History of Birds, fairly weighs the good and harm done by rooks, and is convinced that the former greatly preponderates. He suggests this watching, as Sir Wm. Jardine, likewise, has subsequently done; and I have been pleased to see it carried into effect on the farm attached to Belvoir Park, near Belfast, where boys provided with a watchman's rattle, or similar instrument, were employed in frightening the rooks from newly sown fields. A friend who kept three eagles, procured rooks enough to feed them on in summer, as these birds came to regale themselves at the troughs containing pig'smeat, of which potatoes formed the principal part. Mr. Poole, too, remarks, that in the county of Wexford, "the cones of Scotch firs form a considerable part of the subsistence of rooks in the autumn. They generally carry them to some distance from the trees and dissect them on the ground.” bodies might separate them from the branches. Such was their common procedure with unyielding cones, as witnessed with much interest from the windows of my friend's house; some pines, in which this ingenious feat was regularly practised, being only a few yards distant. The rook being an especial favourite with me on account of the benefit it does mankind, I was much gratified to learn this proof of its intelligence. This feat raises the species to an equality with the grey crow, as evinced by this bird's rising into the air with shell-fish, and dropping them on the rocks to break them, and renders the rook not unworthy, on the score of intellect, of being placed in the same family group with the raven. What they do with the cones, has not been ascertained. It would seem to me, that unless the scales be so widely open, that the seed is ready to drop out, they could hardly reach it, and even then, a portion only would be accessible; the scales themselves could only, I conceive, be detached, when partially decomposed; unfortunately, the proceedings of the birds, subsequent to their carrying off the cones, have not been watched.* Great meetings of rooks, before the breeding-season commences, have been alluded to by authors, some of whom consider that the object is to settle preliminaries respecting that important period -the correctness of which idea seems probable, though it must be stated, that in the middle of October, I have remarked similar assemblages. These meetings are sometimes long continued. During four weeks in the year 1837-from January 21st to February 17th-whenever I happened to ride between two and three o'clock, in the direction of two rookeries, I always saw, at a place intermediate between them, and about a mile distant from each, extraordinary numbers, amounting certainly to several thousands; more than I conceive the two rookeries could furnish-a third * Mr. Blackwall, in his Researches in Zoology (p. 156), remarks, that "rooks in the autumn frequently bury acorns in the earth, probably with the intention of having recourse to them when their wants are more urgent." Mr. Jesse, too, states that these birds "are known to bury acorns, and, I believe, walnuts also, as I have observed them taking ripe walnuts from a tree, and returning to it before they could have had time to break them and eat the contents. Indeed, when we consider how hard the shell of a walnut is, it is not easy to guess how the rook contrives to break them. May they not, by first burying them, soften the shells, and afterwards return to feed upon them?" (Gleanings in Natural History, 1st series.) rookery about a mile and a half distant must, I imagine, have likewise contributed its numbers. Although they closely covered fields of all kinds (pasture, meadow-land, and ploughed ground), they were not congregated for the purpose of feeding, not more perhaps than one in a hundred being ever so engaged. Again, they would all be on wing at such a height as to look no larger than swallows, and would keep within as limited a space in the air, as they had occupied on the earth. Rooks, as remarked by Mr. Macgillivray, "seem to calculate upon the protection which they usually receive in the neighbourhood of their breeding-places." Here, it is highly interesting to observe them become fellow-labourers with man when the plough is at work, alighting at the ploughman's heels, and closely following its track to consume the destructive larvæ which are turned up; thus performing an important office that the lords of creation could not accomplish for themselves. At such times, too, as if conscious of the good in which they are engaged, they admit of a near approach, and their finely polished plumage has a beautiful effect, as it glances like burnished metal in the sun. Their time of roosting varies a little, as the afternoon may be bright or gloomy. Once on the 10th of August, I remarked a great number busily employed in feeding at some distance from the rookery so late as seven o'clock in the evening; the day throughout having been dull and dark. Rooks sometimes do a great deal of injury to trees in or near rookeries, by perching on their topmost branches. At Cultra, county of Down, the upper portions of the branches of very large sycamore and beech trees, have been wholly killed by them. At Jardine Hall, they have proved very injurious to young trees, especially larches of about fifteen years' growth, by building in them, and destroying their leading shoots. I saw many instances of this having been done, although old trees are in abundance, not only in the demesne, but adjacent to the young ones selected. The ring-dove, too, has greatly injured some beautiful and thriving young Weymouth pines there by roosting on their top shoots. The rook, like other birds mentioned in these pages, can be justly accused of having had valuable stolen property in its possession some lace of a fine and costly kind, spread out to dry, at Nelson Hill, Youghal, was lost to the owner for some time, but eventually discovered in the nests of a rookery in the adjoining demesne. That the rook will sometimes carry building materials a considerable way, I once had evidence by observing one bearing a quantity of hay to its nest, a mile distant, and how much farther off it was picked up, was unknown. I was informed by Richard Langtry, Esq., in the spring of 1831, that a pair of herons having built in the rookery at Dromedaragh, county of Antrim, the rooks tore the first nest to pieces, but the herons eventually succeeded, and reared their brood in safety. A few years before that time, about one hundred and fifty young rooks had been killed there during a storm, by being blown out of the nests. Among adult birds, there was an extraordinary fatality in the county of Westmeath on the night of the great hurricane of January 7th, 1839. As noticed by me, in a communication to the Annals of Natural History,* Mr. Ball was assured by Dean Vignolles, on whose property the circumstance occurred, that the amazing number of 33,000 † were picked up dead on the shores of a lake some miles in length, and with extensive rookeries on its borders. So remarkably numerous were *Note on the Effects of the Hurricane of January 7, 1839, in Ireland, on some Birds, Fishes, &c., vol. iii. p. 182. Were a figure taken off the above number, it would be reduced to what I have remarked to constitute a respectable rookery. Mr. Jesse, too, states that "the average number of rooks' nests, during the last four years, in the avenue of Hampton Court Part, has been about 750; allowing three young birds and a pair of old ones to each nest, the number would amount to 3750."-Gleanings, p. 65, 1st edit. A few years ago, these birds were considered too abundant at Purdysburn, near Belfast, and a thinning of their numbers was commenced when the young were "branchers," -a very fatal time. During three weeks, about twenty dozen a day were sacrificed, -a number, which in eighteen days would amount to 4,320, and yet they were only thinned. Sir Wm. Jardine is of opinion, that the rookery at Jardine Hall, which cannot be called a very large one, contains not less than 12,000 birds. A few years ago, when he wished to diminish them-as they are considered injurious when very numerous, though useful when kept within due bounds-3,000, were killed. As that gentleman has remarked to me, he can well imagine vast numbers of rooks being killed, by being blown against the trees, and into the lake, during such a tremendous hurricane as the one alluded to. He was once witness to a covey of about a dozen partridges, flying very rapidly down the river at Dryburgh, during a high wind, when six of them were blown against the chains of the suspension bridge, and fell dead beneath. the dead bodies, that as a matter of curiosity they were reckoned by some boys, as they gathered them into heaps. Dean Vignolles likewise submitted to Mr. Ball's inspection an unusually thick panel of a new window shutter, which was driven in and split, by a rook being dashed against it, on the night in question :— the innocent cause of the damage was found dead between the window and the shutter, inside the room. Other fatalities occasionally befall the rook. In the autumn of 1831 (?), there was a dense fog over Lough Neagh and its neighbourhood, for two nights and an entire day, during which time great numbers of these birds perished in its waters, and were afterwards washed ashore. I have been told that a similar circumstance occurred in the harbour of Cove, in the south of Ireland, some years ago. At mid-winter, I have remarked large bodies returning at roosting time, across the broadest portion of Belfast bay, to their rookery. At Redhall, county of Antrim, a friend once saw a brood of four young rooks, all of which were white, though both parents were of the ordinary sable hue. J. V. Stewart, Esq., of Rockhill, near Letterkenny, possesses two varieties of the rook, one entirely of a dingy brown colour, and having a diseased appearance: the other, with two white bars across the wings, the rest of the plumage being of the usual colour. In the year 1839, I was told by Mr. G. J. Allman, that several light fawn-coloured birds of this species were shot near Bandon a few years previously, some of which he had seen in company with other rooks, that freely associated with them. Mr. Poole has kindly furnished me with a history of the rook, as observed by himself in the county of Wexford. The following passages, &c., on points not hitherto treated of, are selected from "At the commencement of our rookery, the infant colony consisted of twelve pairs, the next season the number of nests was forty-six, and on the third it had increased to 176 nests, thus indicating, that allowing for deaths by disease or accident, the birdsquadruple their numbers every year. A rather curious accident happened in our rookery. In a quarrel between two rooks one of |