NATURAL HISTORY. 243 



1 Rooks unnumbered build their nest 

 Deliberate birds, and prudent all ; 

 Their notes, indeed, are harsh and rude, 

 But they're a social multitude." CRABBK. 



Ihe sky is calm and clear, they pass through the uj)per air in 

 regular and easy flight. 



739. Sometimes these birds perform an evolution usually called the " shooting 

 of the rooks." When they have risen to an immense height in the air, so that, in 

 appearance, they are scarcely larger than the lark, they suddenly descend to the 

 ground, or to the tops of trees exactly under them. To effect this, they come 

 headlong down, on pinions a little raised, but not expanded, in a zig-xag direction 

 (presenting alternately their back and breast), through the resisting air, with a 

 noise resembling the rushing of the wind ; and when we consider the prodigious 

 height of the rooks at the time they begin to descend, we conclude that they cannot 

 effect their arrival at a spot immediately under them by any other process so 

 short and rapid. 



740. Wliy are roolcs seen to busy themselves in autumn about 

 their nests, as though they were going to make immediate use of 

 them, and then desert them for the iv inter ? 



This curious proceeding probably arises from an instinctive 

 feeling that as the nests will be wanted early in spring, a few repairs 

 may be requisite to strengthen and prevent their being shattered 

 or blown to pieces by the storms of winter. 



741. Why is it said that a crow can smell gunpowder ? 



Because the natural wariness in most seasons of the year of this 

 bird, and the perpetual persecution which it has undergone from 

 man, cause it to keep a very sharp look-out ; and induces it to 

 take flight at the earliest approach of the gunner. 



742. The rook is a bird of great sagacity. It has been known to fly from a man 

 carrying a crutch on his shoulder, and yet to endure the approach of the same 

 man when he walked with a limping gait, with the crutch under his arm. It has 

 also suffered the approach of a sportsman who put his gun under his arm, and pre- 

 tended to use it as a crutch. We doubt the presumption that rooks can smell gun- 

 powder, although we have seen, in a f arm-book of considerable authority, a rag 

 smeared with gunpowder recommended to scare away rooks. The moving rag may 

 have the effect, without the aid of the gunpowder. 



743. In what respects are the bill and stomach of the rooJc 

 practically adapted to each other? 



The biU is so constructed that it can lay hold of, and rend. 



