r84 SAGACITY OF THE ROOK. 



to put a stop to these rapacious proceedings by shortening the 

 string, so that a rook could not turn round in the air to alight 

 upon the bough. But I did not know the extent of a rook's 

 ingenuity and fertility of resource. He now flew on to the branch 

 where the string was tied, and bending downwards seized the 

 string with his beak some inches below the branch, and drew it 

 up with a regular " Hillee haulee, hillee ho" air, and then, putting 

 his foot upon the string to hold it fast, reached down again and 

 pulled up another length of string, which he again secured with 

 his foot, and so on until he brought up the piece of fat within 

 reach. 



I watched the rooks go through this clever performance several 

 times, and noticed that occasionally a bird would fail to secure 

 the string with his foot, and let it slip, when of course he had to 

 begin his hauling up again de novo. But I failed to recognize 

 any corvine sound or gesture suggestive of that monosyllabic 

 expletive with which an ordinary Englishman would have relieved 

 his feelings under similar circumstances. As far as I could judge 

 from his action, all that my friend on the cherry branch thought 

 or said was, " Try again. Better luck next time 1" I was obliged 

 to substitute a stiffish wire for the string ; and, so far, this arrange- 

 ment has baffled the sable marauders ; but I feel far from sure 

 that my poor human expedients to protect the tits' larder will not 

 be neutralized after all by some new device of that quaint, useful, 

 and interesting friend of man — the rook. 



