Part 80

This bird is about the size of the carrion crow, and, except its more glossy plumage, very much resembles it. The base of the bill and nostrils, as far as the eyes, is covered with a white scabrous skin, in which it differs from all the rest, occasioned, it is said, by thrusting its bill into the earth in search of worms; but as the same appearance has been observed in such as have been brought up tame, and unaccustomed to that mode of subsistence, we are inclined to consider it as an original peculiarity. We have already had occasion to observe, that they are useful in preventing a too great increase of that destructive insect the chafer, or dor-beetle, and thereby make large recompense for the depredations they may occasionally commit on the corn-fields. Rooks are gregarious, and fly in immense flocks, at morning and evening, to and from their roosting places, in quest of food. During the breeding time they live together in large societies, and build their nests on trees close to each other, frequently in the midst of large and populous towns. These rookeries, however, are often the scenes of bitter contests; the new-comers are frequently driven away by the old inhabitants, their half-built nests torn in pieces, and the unfortunate couple forced to begin their work anew, in some more undisturbed situation. Of this we had a remarkable instance in Newcastle: in the year 1783, a pair of rooks, after an unsuccessful attempt to establish themselves in a rookery at no great distance from the Exchange, were compelled to abandon the attempt. They took refuge on the spire of that building, and although constantly interrupted by other rooks, built their nest on the top of the vane, and brought forth their young, undisturbed by the noise of the populace below them; the nest and its inhabitants turning about with every change of the wind. They returned and built their nest every year on the same place, till 1793, soon after which the spire was taken down.

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The minute description of rooks is needless; the rooks may always be known from the carrion crow, by their being in flocks, whereas the crows go only in pairs; and also by the white colour of the bill, and from their being bare of feathers upon that part in which the crow is well clothed.

The rook is a gregarious bird, being sometimes seen in numbers so as almost to darken the air in their flight, which they regularly perform morning and evening, except in the breeding time, when the daily attendance of both male and female is required for incubation, or feeding the young; and it is observed they do both alternately. They begin to build in March; one bringing materials, while the other watches the nest, lest it should be plundered by its brethren: they lay five or six eggs, of a pale green colour, marked with small brownish spots. After the breeding season, rooks forsake their nest-trees, going to roost elsewhere; but return to them in August, and again in October, when they repair their nests. The young birds are very good when skinned, steeped in milk, and afterwards put into a pie. Hawker recommends cold water instead of milk.

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There is one trait in the character of the rook which is, I believe, peculiar to that bird, and which does him no little credit; it is the distress which they exhibit when one of them has been killed or wounded by a gun, while they have been feeding in a field or flying over it. Instead of being scared away by the report of the gun, leaving their wounded or dead companion to his fate, they show the greatest anxiety and sympathy for him, uttering cries of distress, and plainly proving that they wish to render him assistance, by hovering over him, or sometimes making a dart from the air close up to him, apparently to try and find out the reason why he did not follow them.

“While circling round and round, They call their lifeless comrade from the ground.”

If he is wounded, and can flutter along the ground, the rooks appear to animate him to make fresh exertions by incessant cries, flying a little distance before him, and calling to him to follow them. I have seen one of my labourers pick up a rook so wounded, which he shot at for the purpose of putting him up as a scare-crow in a field of wheat; and while the poor wounded bird was still fluttering in his hand, I have observed one of his companions make a wheel round in the air, and suddenly dart past him so as almost to touch him, perhaps with a last hope that he might still afford assistance to his unfortunate mate or companion. Even when the dead bird has been hung, _in terrorem_, to a stake in the field, he has been visited by some of his former friends, but as soon as they found that the case was hopeless, they have generally abandoned that field altogether.

When one considers the instinctive care with which rooks avoid any one carrying a gun, and which is so evident, that I have often heard country-people remark that they can smell gunpowder, one can more justly estimate the force of their love or friendship in thus continuing to hover round a person who has just destroyed one of their companions with an instrument, the dangerous nature of which they seem fully capable of appreciating.

Rooks are not easily induced to forsake the trees on which they have been bred, and which they frequently revisit after the breeding season is over. This is shown in Hampton Court Park, where there is an extensive rookery among the fine lime-trees, and where a barbarous and unnecessary custom prevails of shooting the young rooks. As many as a hundred dozen of them have been killed in one season, and yet the rooks build in the avenue, though there is a corresponding avenue close by in Bushy Park, which they never frequent, notwithstanding the trees are equally high and equally secure. I never hear the guns go off during this annual slaughter without execrating the practice, and pitying the poor rooks, whose melancholy cries may be heard to a great distance, and some of whom may be seen, exhausted by their fruitless exertions, sitting melancholy on a solitary tree waiting till the sport is over, that they may return and see whether any of the offspring which they have reared with so much care and anxiety are left to them; or, what is more probable, the call for assistance of their young having ceased, they are aware of their fate, and are sitting in mournful contemplation of their loss. This may appear romantic, but it is nevertheless true; and whoever, like myself, has observed the habits and manners of the rook, and witnessed their attachment to each other and to their young,—and is convinced, as I am, that they have the power of communication by means of a language known to themselves, and are endowed with a knowledge and foresight most extraordinary, will take as much interest in them as I have confessed that I do.

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A gentleman in this neighbourhood had two milk-white rooks in one nest. A booby of a carter, finding them before they were able to fly, threw them down, and destroyed them, to the regret of the owner, who would have been glad to have preserved such a curiosity in his rookery. I saw the birds myself nailed against the end of a barn, and was surprised to find that their bills, legs, feet, and claws were milk-white.

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Passage hawks are also used for rooks. These birds sometimes mount like herons, but their flight is in general much lower. They must be found in an open country; and the wood, which is their place of retreat, must be so situated as to oblige them to fly against the wind to gain in.—_Bewick_—_Daniel_—_Jesse_—_White’s Selborne_—_Sebright._

ROOKERY, _s._ A nursery of rooks.

ROOST, _s._ That on which a bird sits to sleep; the act of sleeping.

ROOST, _v._ To sleep as a bird.

ROPE, _s._ A cord, a string, a halter.

ROPY, _a._ Viscous, tenacious, glutinous.

ROSIN, _s._ Inspissated turpentine.

ROSIN, _v._ To rub with rosin.

ROSTRUM, _s._ The beak of a bird; the beak of a ship. _Rostrum cultratum_ (LINN.), in ornithology, is a term used when the edges of the bill are very sharp, as in that of the crow. When the bill is notched near the tip, as in shrikes, thrushes, &c., it is called by Linnæus _rostrum emarginatum_.

ROT, _v._ To make putrid, to bring to corruption.

ROT, _s._ A distemper among sheep in which their lungs are wasted; putrefaction; putrid decay.

ROTARY, _a._ Whirling as a wheel. A motion peculiar to the flight of the hawk tribe.

ROUGE ET NOIR, _s._ A game.

Rouge et noir, or red and black, is a modern game, so styled, not from the cards, but from the colours marked on the tapis or green cloth with which the table is covered.

The first parcel of cards played is usually for noir, the second for rouge, though sometimes the cards are cut to determine which shall begin. All the terms of this game are French, and that language is used in playing. Any number of persons may play, and the punters may risk their money on which colour they please, placing the stakes in the outer semicircle; but after the first card is turned up, no other stakes can be laid for that coup.

The tailleur and croupier seat themselves opposite each other, with a basket for receiving the cards of every coup after dealing, which is placed on the middle of the table. The tailleur then passing round six packs of cards to be shuffled and mixed confusedly all together by the company, afterwards finally shuffles them, and inserts all the end cards into various parts of the 312, till he meets with an honour, which being placed upright at the end, is offered to a punter, who, putting the same into any part of the pack, the tailleur there separates it, and lays that part which was below the said honour uppermost, and taking therefrom a handful of cards, and placing a weight upon the remainder, proceeds to deal, taking afterwards other parcels from the heap as they may be wanted, till all are dealt out. He looks at the first card, and puts its face downwards; two others, one red, the other black, are then laid back to back, and that placed conspicuously uppermost which is of a similar colour with the first card; these two cards are turned according to the colour of the card which afterwards may be first dealt in each succeeding coup. When the stakes are deposited, the tailleur cries noir, turns the top card, and places each succeeding one in a row, till the points of those so turned shall exceed thirty; he then declares the numbers at trente and une, one and thirty; or, if above that, up to forty he only says, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept, huit, neuf, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and when forty, quarante.

Another parcel is then dealt in a similar mode for rouge, and the punters win who had staked on that colour, the points for which were thirty-one or nearest to it, which the tailleur declares, by saying rouge gagne, red wins; or rouge perd, red loses. These two parcels, one for each colour, make a coup. When the same number is dealt for each, the tailleur says, apres, after, which forms un refait, or doublet, by which neither party loses, except it is un refait trente et un, one-and-thirty, when the tailleur wins half the stakes punted on each colour, which half the punters may either pay, or have their stakes moved into the middle semicircles of the colour they then choose, called la première prison, the first prison, to be determined by the next event, whether they lose all or are set at liberty; but if un refait second trente and un, a second doublet of one and thirty, should occur in the next succeeding deal, the punters lose only one half of their remaining moiety, making three-fourths of their original stakes, and are removed into the smallest semicircle, styled la seconde prison, the second prison, and the next coup determines whether the punter loses all, or is to be removed again into la première prison.

Punters after winning may paroli, &c., and pursue their luck up to a soixante, as at faro; but as no livrets are used at rouge et noir, they cannot make either paix or pont.

At this game a banker cannot refuse any stake not exceeding his fund; which the punter declares, by saying je va la banque, va la banque, or va banque, I aim at the bank. Bankers generally furnish punters with slips of card paper, ruled in columns, each marked N. or R. at the top on which accounts are kept by pricking with a pin, and when un refait happens, the same is denoted by running the pin through the middle line. Some bankers give up the profit of le refait during the first deal.

The odds against le refait being deals, are reckoned sixty-three to one, but bankers expect it twice in three deals, and there are generally from twenty-nine to thirty-two coups in each deal.—_Hoyle._

ROUGHRIDER, _s._ One that breaks horses for riding.

ROUSING, _s._ The action of a hawk when she shakes herself.

ROW, _v._ To impel by oars. To use the oar.

ROWEL, _s._ The points of a spur turning on an axis; a seton, a roll of hair or silk put into a wound to hinder it from healing, and provoke a discharge.

Rowels are seldom so convenient or so useful as setons. They are formed by making an incision in the skin, where it is rather loose, as in the chest, about an inch in length. This being done, the finger is to be introduced, or an instrument called a cornet, that is, the crooked end of a small horn made for the purpose, and the skin separated from the parts underneath all around for the space of about an inch. Into the cavity thus made a round piece of leather, with a hole in the middle, wrapped in tow and smeared with digestive ointment, is to be introduced. The orifice in the skin is then to be plugged up with tow, and kept there until suppuration takes place, that is, four or five days. The tow is then to be taken out, when a great deal of matter will flow from the orifice. The rowel is afterwards to be moved daily and kept clean.—_White._

ROWEL, _v._ To pierce through the skin, and keep the wound open by a rowel.

ROWER, _s._ One that manages an oar.

RUB, _v._ To clean or smooth anything by passing something over it; to scour, to wipe; to move one body upon another; to remove by friction; to touch hard; to rub down, to clean or curry a horse.

RUBBER, _s._ One that rubs; the instrument with which one rubs; a coarse file; a game, a contest; two games out of three.

RUBY, _a._ Of a red colour.

RUD, _s._ A fish.

The body of the rud is broader than the carp, more like that of the bream, but much thicker; the head is small, the palate and teeth like the carp, on the covers of the gills are spots of a blood colour; the irides are yellow, varying in some almost to redness; the nostrils large, and by some said to be double on each side; the back is arched, sloping off suddenly at the two extremities; the scales are very large, like the carp; the side line is slightly incurvated: the back is of an olive; the sides and belly are of a gold colour, with certain red marks; the ventral, anal fins, and the tail (which is forked), are generally of a deep red, and the dorsal fin is darker than the rest; the usual length of this fish is from ten to sixteen inches. It lives on insects and grass, and is preyed on by the voracious fish and the anseres. In rivers the rud’s haunts are in deepish gentle streams and deep still water, where the bottom is a kind of slimy mud sand, or fine gravel, and also among weeds.

They are always in season, except at the time of spawning, which is in April, when the male fish have small white spots about their heads, and the scales of both sexes feel more rough; they swim in shoals, casting their spawn upon and among the aquatic plants, to the number according to the Elements of Natural History, of 91,000 ova.

Their flesh is exceedingly wholesome, and holds a distinguished rank for its fine flavour; but they are very scarce.

Mr. Pennant believes the shallow of the Cam, which grows to the length of thirteen inches, and spawns in April, to be no other fish than the rud.

The angler will find the rud worth his attention; the tackle must be strong, but fine, with a quill float, and a hook proportioned to the bait; the same ground-bait is to be used as for carp and chub, fishing about the same depths as for the latter, except on the ground, for they feed naturally near the surface; they will in this way take red-worms, gentles, wasp-maggots, caddis, and red-paste. Some use a ground-bait of boiled malt, and prefer a small red worm to any other bait. In fishing among weeds, have neither float nor shot, and let the worm, or other bait sink a little under water: at top they are taken either with natural or artificial flies, by whipping with a long, and dibbing or bobbing with a short line. In warm, bright weather, the rud will bite early and late; when coolish, the fore and afternoons; and in winter, the middle of the day; when hooked this fish struggles hard, and requires time in landing, and is so tenacious of life, as to retain it after being taken out of the water a considerable time.—_Daniel._

RUDDOCK, _s._ A kind of bird.

RUDDY, _a._ Approaching to redness, pale red; yellow.

RUFF, _s._ A puckered linen ornament formerly worn about the neck; a bird.

The male of this curious species is called the ruff, and the female the reeve: they differ materially in their exterior appearance; and also, what is remarkable in wild birds, it very rarely happens that two ruffs are alike in the colours of their plumage. The singular, wide-spreading, variegated tuft of feathers which, in the breeding season, grows out of their necks, is different in all. The tuft, or ruff, a portion of which stands up like ears behind each eye, is in some black, in others black and yellow, and in others again white, rust colour, or barred with glossy violet, black and white. They are, however, more nearly alike in other respects: they measure about a foot in length, and two in breadth, and when first taken weigh about seven ounces and a half; the female seldom exceeds four. The bill is more than an inch long, black at the tip, and reddish yellow towards the base; the irides are hazel: the whole face is covered with reddish tubercles, or pimples; the wing coverts are brownish ash colour; the upper parts and the breast are generally marked with transverse bars, and the scapulars with roundish-shaped glossy black spots, on a rusty coloured ground; quills dusky; belly, vent, and tail coverts white; the tail is brown; the four middle feathers of it are barred with black; the legs are yellow. The male does not acquire the ornament of his neck till the second season, and, before that time, is not easily distinguished from the female, except by being larger. After moulting, at the end of June, he loses his ruff and the red tubercles on his face, and from that time until the spring of the year, he again, in the plumage, looks like his mate.

These birds leave Great Britain in the winter, and are then supposed to associate with others of the tringa genus, among which they are no longer recognised as the ruff and reeve. In the spring, as soon as they arrive again in England, and take up their abode in the fens where they were bred, each of the males (of which there appears to be a much greater number than of the females) immediately fixes upon a particular dry and grassy spot in the marsh, about which he runs round and round, until it is trodden bare; to this spot, it appears, he wishes to invite the female, and waits in expectation of her taking a joint possession, and becoming an inmate. As soon as a single female arrives, and is heard or observed by the males, her feeble cry seems as if it roused them all to war, for they instantly begin to fight, and their combats are described as being both desperate and of long continuance: at the end of the battle she becomes the prize of the victor. It is at the time of these battles that they are caught in the greatest numbers in the nets of the fowlers, who watch for that opportunity: they are also, at other times, caught by clap, or day-nets, and are drawn together by means of a stuffed reeve, or what is called a stale bird, which is placed in some suitable spot for that purpose.

The ruff is highly esteemed as a most delicious dish, and is sought after with great eagerness by the fowlers, who live by catching them and other fen birds for the markets of the metropolis, &c. Before they are offered for sale, they are commonly put up to feed for about a fortnight, and during that time fed with boiled wheat, and bread and milk mixed with hempseed, to which sugar is sometimes added: by this mode of treatment they become very fat, and are often sold as high as two shillings and sixpence each. They are cooked in the same manner as the woodcock.

The female, in the beginning of May, makes her nest in a dry tuft of grass in the fens, and lays four white eggs, marked with rusty spots.

These birds are common in the summer season in the fens of Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, and are also found in other more northern regions, even as far as Iceland.

The trade of catching ruffs is confined to a very few persons. They live in obscure places on the verge of the fens, and are found out with difficulty; for few, if any birds, are ever bought, but by those who make a trade of fatting them for the table; and they sedulously conceal the abode of the fowlers; so much so, that by no art could we obtain from any of them where they resided; and in order to deceive us, after evading our entreaties, they gave us instructions that led us quite a contrary direction. The reason of all this was obvious; for after much labour and search in the most obscure places, (for neither the innkeepers, nor other inhabitants of the towns, could give any information, and many did not know such a bird was peculiar to their fens,) we found out a very civil and intelligent fowler, who resided close to Spalding, at Fengate, by name William Burton (we feel a pleasure in recording his name, not only from his obliging nature, but for the use of others in similar pursuits); and, strange to say, that although this man had constantly sold ruffs to Mr. Towns, a noted feeder, hereafter more particularly noticed, as also to another feeder at Cowbit, by the name of Weeks, neither of those persons could be induced to inform us even of the name of this fowler. The reason, however, was evident, and justly remarked by Burton, for he obtained no more than ten shillings per dozen, whereas Weeks demanded thirty shillings for the like number he had the same day bought of Burton. The season was far advanced, and we were obliged to buy some at that price of Weeks, for Burton could not then catch us as many as were required.

At this time we were shown into a room where there were about seven dozen males and a dozen females, and of the former there were not two alike. This intrusion to choose our birds, drove them from their stands, and compelling some to trespass upon the premises of others, produced many battles.

By this feeder we learned, that two guineas a dozen was now the price for fattened ruffs; and he never remembered the price under thirty shillings, when fit for table.