26o BIRD WATCHING 



blue sky of this fine bright October morning — the last 

 one of the month — had a charming effect. 



" A fortnight later I happened to be near some woods 

 to which rooks were flying from all directions, to roost, 

 as I thought then, but afterwards I found it was only 

 one of their halting places. They were in countless 

 numbers, one great troop after another flying up from 

 far away over the country. The air was full of their 

 voices, which were of a great variety and modulation, 

 the ordinary harsh (though pleasant) ' caw ' being 

 perhaps the least noticeable of all. Each troop flew 

 high, and, on coming within a certain distance of 

 the wood — a fair-sized field away — they suddenly 

 began to swoop down upon it in long sweeping 

 curves or slants, at the same time uttering a very 

 peculiar burring note, which, though much deeper 

 and essentially rook-like in tone, at once reminded 

 me of the well-known sound made by the nightjar. 

 Imagine a rook trying to 'burr' or 'churr' like a 

 nightjar, and doing it like a rook, and you have it. 

 Whilst making these long downward-slanting swoops 

 the birds would often twist and turn in the air in 

 an astonishing manner, sometimes even, as it seemed 

 to me, turning right over as a peewit does, in fact, 

 exhibiting powers of flight far beyond what anyone 

 would imagine rooks to possess, who had only seen 

 or noticed them on ordinary occasions. 



" Whilst these birds sweep down into the trees others 

 of them settle on the adjoining meadow-land, but they 

 do not descend upon it in the same way, but more 

 steadily, though still with many a twist and turn and 

 whirring, whizzing evolution. Neither do they utter 

 the strange burring note to which I have called atten- 



