244 NOTES ON THE KOOK. 



of connubial felicity wliicli we may well aspire to ; but which, fallen and 

 depraved as we are, inheriting as we do a corrupt nature, slaves as we arc 

 to evil passions, indulging as we do in vicious propensities, addicted as we 

 are to excesses of every kind, we cannot expect to attain. Note with what 

 constancy the male bird attends to his dusky partner while engaged in the 

 task of incubation ! How faithfully he supplies her wants ! And mark, 

 when the young are hatched, how unremitting is the attention bestowed up- 

 on them by both the parents ! Day and night they are the objects of their 

 affectionate and unceasing solicitude. Mark, too, with what unmistakeable 

 signs of gratitude the attentions of the parent birds are received. How 

 tremulous becomes each little voice, as though the utterer were overcome with 

 emotion, while expressing its thanks for the food lovingly brought and ad- 

 ministered to it ! How reproachful to us must be the sound ! Who can 

 listen to it and not be made to feel that, in point of gratitude and filial affec- 

 tion, man is infinitely exceeded by " the fowls of the air ?" God's severe, 

 but, we may be sure, just reproof of his chosen people, — " The Ox knoweth 

 his owner, and the Ass his master's crib ; but Israel doth not know, my 

 people doth not consider," may as justly apply to us. We go on, regardless 

 alike of judgments and of mercies; exhibiting in our conduct no dread of 

 the one — no thankfulness on account of the other. 



The voice of the Rook is capable of great expression, independent of its 

 change of tone with the change of season : this any one may remark, as my 

 brother informs me he has often done, by lending an ear to the bird's dismal 

 croak on a miserably cold and stormy day in winter, and then contrasting it 

 with the cheerful " caAv" it gives utterance to when the weather is calm and 

 fine at that season. The foi-mer note as clearly expresses the bird's feelings 

 as though she articulated the words — " Dear me ! what an uncomfortable 

 day to be sm^e ; it may be wrong to complain, but really it makes one feel 

 extremely wretched " And the latter note as plainly as though she delivered 

 herself of this strain : " Well, this is delightful weather for the time of year! 

 beautiful! I quite enjoy it! It makes one feel ' uncommonly jolly.' But 

 that I do not happen to possess a musical voice, nor belong to a musical 

 familj', my feelings would vent themselves in song." 



My brother has remarked it as strange, that although, during the late 

 visitation, many dead bodies were left suspended among the branches of the 

 ti-ees, the survivors appeared to take no notice whatever of them ; this, he 

 tliinks, is to be attributed to the instinctive knowledge these birds must 

 possess, that death had resulted from natural causes, and in this I quite 

 agree with him : for had it been produced by violence, the sight of the dead 

 bodies of their companions would have occasioned no small amount of con- 

 sternation, a general commotion, and no end of uproar ; there would have 

 been literally " a row in the rookery," and " a jolly row" too. 



It is worthy of remark, that although a number of Jackdaws, as usual, 



