WATCHING ROOKS 291 



" As light struggles out of the darkness, the silence 

 is broken more and more frequently, at some point 

 or other of the plantation, so that the sound is dis- 

 seminated over a larger and larger space, till, for some 

 little while before the flight, the whole rookery seems 

 to be talking at one and the same time. In reality, 

 however, there is a constant cessation and renewal on 

 the part of each individual bird. 



"At 6.30 the sounds take a deeper and more em- 

 phatic tone. There is more solemnity, more meaning, 

 and the meaning grows plainer and plainer as the 

 asseveration becomes more and more emphatic, that 

 ' it is, yes is, is really, positively is, is, is, is, is the 

 morning.' 



"At 6.35 there is the light, joyous 'chug-a, chug-a, 

 chug-a,' besides which one catches — if one has a good 

 ear — 'hook, chook, — hook, took — hook-a-hoo-loo — 

 chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, — polyglot, 

 polyglot' 



" Then there is a question — a serious and solemnly 

 propounded question — ' Quow-yow ? ' The answer — 

 from another rook — is immediate and undoubted — 

 ' Yow-quow.' 



" There are sounds which just miss being articulate 

 and just evade one's efforts to write them down. It is 

 significant that I have to use the word 'talking' to 

 describe the rook's utterances. It is the one word ; 

 another would sound forced and strained. 



"Throughout the babel, there is a tendency for it 

 to sink and rise in sudden accentuations and diminish- 

 ments. Now there is a diminishment, and a bird 

 in the tree next to mine gives a sleepy stretch out 

 of one wing, which has all the appearance of a yawn. 



