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is easily conceived to be the whirring of witches' 

 wings throngli space. And when it snaps its wings 

 together, as is its habit, with quite a loud report, one's 

 flesh creeps at the nearness of the rock on which the 

 broomstick caught in its mad aerial flight. 



No wonder a mass of silly superstition has 

 collected round such a bird. More than one eerie tale 

 of witches and dark doings conceivably originated in 

 the singular habits of this creature. Coming from its 

 retirement reluctantly, and but little, by day, only 

 pursuing its prev towards and after twilight, it is 

 known to few country-dwellers except by sound— and 

 that is strange enough to excuse almost anything, 



It is termed the Goat-sucker in some districts, 

 and the country-folk hold that it sucks the teats of 

 cattle — a quite impossible feat for a bird with such a 

 bill. This misconception may have arisen from its 

 habit of haunting the near vicinity of cattle, hawking 

 the flies which are always to be found in such a 

 quarter, as is also the habit of Wagtails, Starlings, 

 and other devourers of insect pests. 



On odd occasions I have been an interested 

 observer of the summary justice meted out 'twixtRook 

 and Rook. The code of honour of these birds is on a 

 high plane, especially so in matters affecting the 

 rights of propert}^ — the maxim, " Possession is nine 

 points of the law," is not tolerated by them. A list of 

 actions accounted offences against the constitution of 

 a Rook colony, could such be compiled, would make 

 interesting, and doubtless astonishing reading. That 

 grievances are thoroughly sifted and justice meted out, 

 according to the rights of Rook law, are known facts. 

 Careful, and apparently reliable, observers have even 

 recorded the strangling of an offender, clearly some 

 incorrigible scoundrel, by his fellow-rooks — a some- 

 what startling, though to my mind feasible, statement. 



