200 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



I saw what I took to be the original builders — in 

 any case the numbers were not increased — toiling 

 feverishly, and in an incredibly short time not a 

 stick remained in the trees. Then the four birds 

 departed, never to return. 



In regard to the so-called parliaments, extra- 

 ordinary gatherings of Rooks occur at times, 

 usually shortly before roosting, when many hun- 

 dreds may be seen assembled, in more or less 

 orderly formation, in the meadow- ; all comparatively 

 silent, and their demeanour on these occasions cer- 

 tainly gives colour to the suggestion that they are 

 engaged in some serious discussion. It has been 

 said that these gatherings, during which certain 

 of the birds ascend to very great heights and 

 suddenly drop headlong, twisting as they fall, a 

 performance many times repeated, are usually fol- 

 lowed by a heavy storm of w-ind or rain. 



One interesting feature in the history of the Rook 

 is his affection for the neighbourhood of man. A 

 rookery far remote from any human dwelling is 

 hard to find. Although his young are shot down, 

 season by season, the Rook still returns to the 

 ancestral trees about the homestead, and once 

 established, few measures short of a wholesale fell- 

 ing of the timber suffice to drive him away. 



Many legends — some of which appear well cor- 

 roborated^relate to the Rook's identification with 

 the fortunes of the house to which he attaches him- 

 self. From time immemorial a rookery existed at 

 Swinsty Hall in the valley of the Washburn. When 

 the family in whose occupation the Hall had been 

 for many generations, found a new home at the 



