Observations on the Habits of the Rook, 101 



and the individuals retire in pairs to propagate their respective 

 species. The rook, however, remains in society the year 

 throughout. In flocks it builds its nest, in flocks it seeks 

 for food, and in flocks it retires to roost. 



About two miles to the eastward of this place are the 

 woods of Nostell Priory, where, from time immemorial, the 

 rooks have retired to pass the night. I suspect, by the ob- 

 servations which I have been able to make on the morning 

 and evening transit of these birds, that there is not another 

 roosting-place for, at least, thirty miles to the westward of 

 Nostell Priory. Every morning, from within a few days of 

 the autumnal to about a week before the vernal equinox, the 

 rooks, in congregated thousands upon thousands, fly over this 

 valley in a westerly direction, and return in undiminished 

 numbers to the east an hour or so before the night sets in. 

 In their morning passage, some stop here ; others, in other 

 favourite places farther and farther on ; now repairing to the 

 trees for pastime, now resorting to the fields for food, till the 

 declining sun warns those which have gone farthest to the 

 westward that it is time they should return. They rise in a 

 mass, receiving additions to their numbers from every inter- 

 vening place, till they reach this neighbourhood in an amazing 

 flock. Sometimes they pass on without stopping, and are 

 joined by those which have spent the day here. At other 

 times they make my park their place of rendezvous, and cover 

 the ground in vast profusion, or perch upon the surrounding 

 trees. _After tarrying here for a certain time^ every rook 

 takes wing. They linger in the air for a while, in slow 

 revolving circles, and then they all proceed to Nostell Priory, 

 which is their last resting-place for the night. In their morn- 

 ing and evening passage, the loftiness or lowliness of their 

 flight seems to be regulated by the state of the weather. 

 When it blows a hard gale of wind, they descend the valley 

 with astonishing rapidity, and just skim over the tops of the 

 irlervening hills, a few feet above the trees : but, when the 

 sky is calm and clear, they pass through the heavens at a 

 great height, in regular and easy flight. 



Sometimes these birds perform an evolution, which is, in 

 this part of the country, usually called the shooting of the 

 rooks. [V. 239.] Farmers tell you that this shooting por- 

 tends a coming wind. He who pays attention to the flight of 

 birds has, no doubt, often observed this downward movement. 

 When rooks have risen to an immense 'height in the air, so 

 that, in appearance, they are scarcely larger than the lark, 

 they suddenly descend to the ground, or to the tops of trees 

 exactly under them. To effect this, they come headlong 



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