Rooks’ NEsTs. 145 
allowed in the wood, and I thought it beyond their patience almost 
to do such work, so I simply knocked them all away with my 
walking stick, and wondered if they were poachers’ signals. 
Now, however, the mystery is partly solved, for a great many of 
the rooks have been walking about my garden, and a few days ago 
I saw a bunch of crossed sticks lying on a walk. No one had been 
in the garden I knew for a fact, but the next morning they were 
gone. I immediately thought of last spring, and connected them 
with the rooks and their nests. We had no rookery in the country, 
but the rooks came after poultry food, or other birds may do this. 
I know not, but I should be glad to know more about it. This 
rookery here may be about two miles from my old home, and 
there is none nearer. I may mention that the twigs were not very 
small—some, I am sure, two or three feet long in the wood, but 
as I remember, those in the open field seemed short, but they were 
all crossed diagonally. 
Mr Service observed that the rooks set about repairing 
and working about their nests in October; then the severe 
weather stopped their operations, and they were not resumed 
until off and on after the New-Year, according to the temperature. 
Rev. Mr Dunlop, referring to the legend that they begin nest- 
building on the first Sunday of March, said he was glad to think 
that Mrs Thomson had cleared the character of such a clerical 
bird as the rook from the charge of Sabbath-breaking. He knew 
from observation of the Gribton rooks that they were building 
their nests now. But he believed they robbed each other of the 
sticks they had collected for their nests. 
24th February, 1906. 
SPECIAL District MEETING AT LOCKERBIE. 
A Special District Meeting was held in the Town Hall, 
Lockerbie, on the above date, and was largely attended. 
Chairman—The PRESIDENT. 
New Mempers.—Miss Wilson, Castledykes, Dumfries; Mr 
D. M‘Jerrow, Solicitor, Lockerbie; Provost David Halliday, 
