284 BIRD WATCHING 



bolt upright, seeming to stand on tip-toe. More than 

 upright he is — bent back, trying to look like a soldier, 

 but obliged to be graceful and elegant. Standing thus, 

 he seems on the very point of trumpeting, yet does 

 not, and then runs on again. He repeats this, several 

 times, each time thinking of trumpeting, but desisting 

 and going on. 



"At 7.58 the flight out commences. Two or three 

 birds are a little in front, none very prominently so, 

 and others are catching them up and seem just on 

 the point of passing them when they are lost to me 

 in the mist. There is nothing suggesting a leader. 

 If they were led it was not by one of themselves, for 

 with them and in their very fore-front two little birds 

 were flying, who passed with them out of sight. They 

 were tits, I think, and in another flight out, after one 

 of the pauses — for the rooks fly out by relays, like 

 the starlings — I noticed one other, all three, I believe, 

 being parus ccsruleus. There are quite a number of 

 tits in the plantation and woods adjoining, but why 

 just three should leave it and go flying with the rooks 

 through the mist, over the open country, if not for 

 the mere joy and fun of the thing, I know not. All 

 at once a number of the out-flying birds turn in their 

 flight, and swoop back, with a great rush of wings, 

 to the plantation. Afterwards, at intervals, there are 

 other such returns, little bands of the birds seeming to 

 say, ' Oh, let's go back to bed. It's much nicer,' and 

 doing so. This, too, is exactly what the starlings do. 

 The birds, as they fly, are all vociferous, and the air is 

 laden with a pleasant burden of ' chug-chow, chug- 

 chow, chug-chow. Chugger-chugger-chow. How-chow, 

 how-chow.' The rooks talk a kind of Chinese. 



