PARIS CROWS.
Another rook problem is put by a correspondent from the Place de la Concorde, a name that could not be used with fitness of any rookery that ever I watched! He writes :
" There is never any doubt about the date of spring's arrival in Paris. It is definitely fixed by the reappearance of the crows, who return annually to their nests in the plane trees on the Quai du Louvre, on the right bank of the Seine, just a stone's throw from the Pont Neuf and the Palace of the Louvre. They arrived a few days ago, and are busy settling down for their summer villegiature.' Their large black nests remain intact all through the winter, unaffected by wind and rain, and apparently there is little repairing to be done by Maitre Corbeau et sa dame when they come up from the south, or wherever it is they come from As a matter of fact, I am puzzled to know where they migrate to: I have watched them every spring and summer for twelve years, as I walk along the quai. I have always believed that French crows did not migrate, but it is clear that these four or five couples of the Quai du Louvre go somewhere in the autumn and return in the spring. It is curious to me why these particular crows select the most crowded part of Paris for their summer home."
Rooks do migrate in some measure, like crows, especially the hoodie, starlings, larks, blackbirds, and other birds that we regard as native ; and their winter roosting places are at least as often as not quite distinct from their nurseries.
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