MYSTERIOUS RELATIONS 59 



For some minutes they hovered about, over a space 

 corresponding with a fair-sized meadow, the crow 

 making one of them, and still, at intervals, con- 

 tinuing to cry, the rooks talking much less. Then, 

 all at once, they dispersed again over the country. 

 What, if anything, could have been the meaning of 

 this rendezvous ? All I can imagine is that, when 

 the rooks heard the repeated cries of the crow, they 

 concluded he had found something eatable, and, there- 

 fore, flew up to share in it, but that, seeing nothing, 

 they hovered about for a time on the look-out and 

 then gave it up and flew off^. I can form no idea, 

 however, of what it was that had excited the crow, 

 for excited he certainly seemed — it was a sudden burst 

 of " are "-ing. He did not go down anywhere, so 

 that it can have had nothing to do with a find, and 

 I feel sure from the way he came up, and the place 

 and distance at which he began to cry, that he had 

 not seen me. This, then, was my theory, at the 

 time, to account for the action of the rooks ; but on 

 the very next day something of the same sort 

 occurred, which was yet not all the same, and which 

 could not be explained in this way. This time, 

 when a crow rose with his '*crar, crar " and flew 

 to some trees, a number of rooks rose also from all 

 about, and after circling a little, each where it had 

 gone up, flew to a plantation, where shortly the 

 crow flew also. Here, again, there was no question 

 of the crow having found anything, for he rose from 

 where he had for some time been, and flew straight 

 away. Nor could the rooks have imagined that he 

 had, for they all rose as at a signal, and, without 

 going to where he had been, flew to somewhere 



