. British birds. Birds. LEnER5 DO ROOKS OCCASIONALLY BREED IN THEIR FIRST YEAR ? To the Editors of British Birds. Sirs,—Having paid some attention to the manner in which the face of the Rook becomes bare, I may state that in the main my observations and specimens confirm Mr. Witherby's conclusions. But, with regard to this species not breeding in the first year, there is evidence that this is not invariably the case. I dissected the bird referred to in Vol. IV., p. 370, as " undoubtedly breeding," and it contained an egg nearly ready for extrusion. Again, in the Zoologist for 1888, p
. British birds. Birds. LEnER5 DO ROOKS OCCASIONALLY BREED IN THEIR FIRST YEAR ? To the Editors of British Birds. Sirs,—Having paid some attention to the manner in which the face of the Rook becomes bare, I may state that in the main my observations and specimens confirm Mr. Witherby's conclusions. But, with regard to this species not breeding in the first year, there is evidence that this is not invariably the case. I dissected the bird referred to in Vol. IV., p. 370, as " undoubtedly breeding," and it contained an egg nearly ready for extrusion. Again, in the Zoologist for 1888, p. 224, it is recorded that a black- beaked Rook was seen repeatedly carrying sticks and endeavouring to build, but apparently unsuccessfully. Stevenson also, in the Birds of Norfolk, notes that out of six Rooks killed in the act of collecting sticks for nesting purposes, all of which proved to be males, " one exhibited a pure black face, with stout bristles, like yoiing birds in their first ; Eric B. Dunlop. Troutbeck, Windermere. [The mere act of carrying about nesting-material does not of course prove that the birds were capable of breeding, but it perhaps shows +hat they had some desire to do so, and the comparative sizes of the organs of the males which I gave on page 131 might I think account for such a desire.—] DIMINUTION OF STARLINGS IN YORKSHIRE. To the Editors of British Birds. Sirs,—I do not see any reference in your correspondence columns to the extraordinary diminution in the numbers of breeding Starlings in 1913, which in the East and West Ridings of Yorkshire has been most marked. Not a tenth of the usual number of nests have been occupied, and the birds were gathered into flocks by the third week in May, when they should have been busy feeding young. No reason for this extraordinary diminution in reproductive powers of a bird which up to now has far exceeded the available supply of nesting-sites has been discovered. E. W. Wade. North
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