BOOKS VERSUS HERONS. 29 



of which have been known to desert their ances- 

 tral abodes, diso-usted at the fellinfy of a single 

 tree; and knowing with what anxious care they 

 are regarded by their benevolent owner; I left 

 the heronry, and ascending the rising ground a 

 few hundred yards off, but still in the same 

 wood, I came to the rookery: here the herons 

 had originally taken up their position, but were 

 expelled after a few years by the rooks.* 



By the way, I forgot to mention, that while 

 perched at the top of the Scotch fir, I witnessed a 

 curious chace, for combat it could not be called, 

 between a rook and a heron. The latter, return- 

 ing, I presume, from a foraging expedition among 

 the brooks in the neighbourhood of Pulborough, 

 was obliged either to fly directly over the rook- 

 ery, or take a circuitous route to avoid it. In 

 this dilemma he seemed to make up his mind to 

 choose the less prudent, though nobler alterna- 

 tive, but he had hardly appeared above the tops 



* It would appear that such contests are not inva- 

 riably attended with similar results. Bewick quotes 

 an instance in which hostilities were carried on during 

 two successive seasons, and after many of the rooks and 

 some of the herons had lost their lives, the latter re- 

 mained in possession of the disputed trees. 



Perhaps in these struggles numerical superiority may 

 decide the victory. 



