rook

a kind of bird – song bird – belongs to the crow family – medium-sized with thick silky black feathers with blue or bluish-purple hue in bright sunlight, round head with large, very pointed beak (bill) with grey-white skin around the base, strong medium-sized legs with lot of feathers up to the knees, flat medium-sized tail; size: 1½ long, including the tail, and weight: 350-550 grams; feeds on (eats) insects, insect larvae, earthworms, small animals, such as voles, lizards, bird eggs, and grain, fruit, and scraps of edibles from the human garbage dumps, picking the food from the ground; lives for, on average, 5 years (some individuals may live up to 22 years);

male ~~ cock

female ~~ hen

baby ~~ chick

group ~~ building, shoal, congregation, pack, parliament, clamour {a large group in breeding season – rookery}

voice (call) ~~ caw

home ~~ nest (an untidy shallow dip made with long sticks in tree tops)

Special Features:

Like their cousins, crow and raven, the rook is also considered intelligent, and the most adaptable bird, living on very limited resources.

Rooks have become pests in some agricultural areas as they feed on the grain and other plant matter.  But animal experts say that they are more useful than harmful because they eat away the insect pests and their larvae or caterpillars!!

Rooks have been mentioned in several story books and comics!

In the folklore of some cultures, rooks are said to be able to forecast weather, and to sense the approach of death.

Some British people believe that if a rookery is abandoned by the rooks, the land owner in which the rookery is experiences bad fortune!  Yet some others believe that rooks escort the souls of good people to heaven when they die!!

Figures of Speech:

1.

rook  (noun)  =

(a)

one of the pawns (pieces) in chess, a board game

(b)

{in card game} a trick-taking game played with a deck of (= pack of) Rook playing cards

(c)

“The Rook”, a time-travelling comic book

(d)

“Montes Rook”, a ring-shaped mountain range that lies along the western limb of the moon

2.

to rook (verb)  =  to cheat; to swindle

3.

as hoarse as a young rook (‘hoarse’ = (of voice) rough, not pleasant to hear)

4.

to put someone where the rooks will not shit on him/her [said to imply to hide someone ‘underground’]

5.

‘ding down the nests and the rooks will flee away’ (‘ding’, in this context, = knock, thump) = to send away the enemies or the main bad characters by destroying their hiding place

6.

“The raven said to the rook: ‘Stand away, black coat!’” (‘raven’ = a kind of black bird)    [a proverb used to criticise someone with bad or indecent qualities who scolds or uses severe or harsh words to others who have the same bad or indecent qualities]

<<< Back to List R —-    Next … rooster >>>