THE ROOK REPUBLIC.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 582, 5 July 1913, Page 3

THE ROOK REPUBLIC.

The rook is almost as well known as the sparrow. It is a marvel to some stern utilitarians why both birds are allowed' to exist in such, numbers. No picture of the country is complete without a few rooks somewhere in the horizon, says "The Weekly Citizen." Even prosaic people who care nothing for rural landscapes do not disdain rookpie ! And yet there is a tremendous amount of ignorance as to these birds and their habits. In the first place, it is quite a commpn thing to hear them spoken o>as crows. True, the rook, in common with the raven, the jackdaw, magpie, the grey crow, the hooded crow, and the carrion, all belong to the family '"corvus" ; yet if the rook and the crow are first cousins, they have each very distinct characteristics of their own. Asked to distinguish the one from the other, a youthful observer once explained that "when it's one it's a crow, when it's a lot it's a rook."

Grammatically the definition is open to criticism, yet it is not altogether wrong for all that. Crows are solitary birds. Occasionally, it is true, parties of them may be seen, yet only very small parties —they never fly in flocks. Rooks, on the other hand, are strictly gregarious, and during the autumn and winter months, they may be seen in vast hordes no man can attempt to number.

For such multitudes to nest in the same locality would be inconvenient, if not impossible ; during the nesting season ' a change comes over the habits of the rooks. Early in the year the great family breaks up into a number of smaller groups, and each little band goes off to its own nesting place. Small colonies exist all over the country. In one suitable clump of trees there may be a dozen nests, ia another a hundred. It is a curious fact that these nests are occasionally visited by the birds during the winter, apparently in order that their owners may see how they are withstanding the weather. Then, at the first approach of spring, the birds set to work and repair their nests, adding more sticks and making all shipshape, ready for the hen to deposit her eggs. When this is done, the rooks of each group take up their quarters round the nests, though some of the privileged old ones are allowed to remain and carry on their domestic duties in the old or chief roosting place. At, the end of the nesting season, both old and young occupy headquarters, the nestis are deserted till another year, and the vast family, augmented by such of the youngsters as have escaped the gun of the pie hunter, settle down for the winter. For such a family to feed together is also out of the question, and the observer who is up early'may sec the rooks start out at break of day' v 'i» a seemingly endless line spread across the sky. Every now and then a number of the birds drop out, some choosing this field, some that, i» which to search for food. The why and the wherefore of the business will probably baffle naturalists through all time. Why fifty birds out of fifty thousand should drop into one field and the others sail on. it is impossible" to surmise. The birds are hungry, one would have thought that if food were detected thousands would' drop and fight for its possession fc nothing of the soft ever happens. The regiment flies on, growing each moment less and less, as here a company and there a battalion drop out ; there is no confusion, no wrangling. Birds that have settled in 0112 field will generally spend the day in that neighbourhood, the whole body of the birds being dispersed over an enormous area. When evening approaches the army reforms, as the vanguard flies past the various companies fall in, until, if one waits for them at headquarters, the sky is darkened by the multitude of birds which sail up, wheel round, and with an immense commotion hoyer over the trees before they drop for the night. last of all come the stragglers. Perhaps they form the rearguard, or it may be that they have been on outpost duty, more probably they are laggards all. As they fly they utter harsh cries—they are making excuses for being late ! ,