LOVE IN WINTER 63 



interested in the great heap of sticks, which may, 

 perhaps, indicate that it is composed of three rather 

 than of two nests. Once, however, for a little 

 while, another rook is associated with the six, 

 making seven. At 3.45 the rooks again fly off, 

 but return in another ten minutes, and this time 

 the tree with the great communal nest in it is left 

 empty. There is a great deal of cawing, mingled 

 with a higher, sharper note, all very different to the 

 cries made by the rooks, at this same time of the 

 year, in their roosting-places, or when leaving or 

 returning to them in the morning or evening. It 

 was for this latter purpose, doubtless, that the final 

 exodus took place at a little past 4. During the 

 last visit no nest was entered by any bird. 



Do the rooks, then, come to their nests in winter, 

 in order to repair them ? Not once, so far as I 

 could catch their actions, did I see one of these lift 

 a stick, and their behaviour on other occasions, when 

 I have watched them, has been more or less the 

 same. On the other hand we have the combats, the 

 clamorous vociferation, the caressing of one bird by 

 another, the raising and fanning of the tail, with 

 the curious wriggling of it — bearing, in my mind, a 

 peculiar significance — everything, in fact, to suggest 

 sexual emotion. To me it appears that the nests 

 are visited rather for the sake of sport and play, than 

 with any set business-like idea of putting them in 

 order. The birds come to them to be happy and 

 excited, to have genial feelings aroused by the sight 

 of them — 



" Venus then wakes and wakens love " 



