IN PAIRING TIME 143 



it anything that should call for the continued 

 presence of the female bird at the nest, I am unable 

 to say. However that may be, she was perching 

 shoulder to shoulder with the male upon a bough 

 beside the nest, shaking her wings and crying in the 

 unmistakable tones of the female Rook when asking 

 for food. But the male sat obdurate, with beak 

 sullenly set, and without yielding so far as even to 

 avert his head when she bawled in his face. After 

 spending several minutes in appeals so excited that 

 I thought they must end in blows, the female flung 

 herself off, heading toward the feeding fields, the 

 delinquent husband slipping into her wake. As she 

 went she continued to utter the characteristic 

 cry for food, which differs from the ordinary one. 

 Although building was still in progress in some 

 parts of the rookery, most of the birds had 

 finished, and many were sitting. Under these 

 circumstances, "rooking" of a neighbour's sticks is 

 much rarer than during the earlier stages of con- 

 struction; and it may be that the male Rook, 

 regarding it as no longer necessary that the female 

 should stay or guard on this account, refused to start 

 married life straight off with an invalided partner. 

 For I can scarcely believe that he would have acted 

 so had there been eggs in the nest. There is nothing 

 easier than to read human motives into the actions 

 of birds ; and there is also nothing more certain with 

 those intimate with the conversation of birds among 

 themselves than that they are guided by recognised 

 rules of conduct that are true " mores" the 

 infraction of which brings with it for the time being, 

 at any rate compunctious visitings similiar to those 



