140 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



learnt to use their wings, and could make very 

 creditable circles in the air above the rookery 

 clump of elms. 



Old rooks told one another without ceasing 

 about the phenomenal success of their colony. 

 " We are a great colonizing people," they said, 

 " and the wisest of birds. Next year the rookery 

 will be five hundred strong, and the finest of its 

 kind in a day's flight. When we go to the fields 

 it will be the grandest sight ever presented to 

 bird eyes." To the young ones they explained 

 that the rooks were a very ancient family upon 

 the earth, and that their heads were positively 

 heavy with the wisdom they had accumulated in 

 many generations. Sagacity was almost a failing 

 with them. To which the young ones replied, 

 with many a " caw," that they felt within them 

 the truth of all this, and meant, in the hundred 

 or more happy years in front of them, to add to 

 the vast accumulations of corvine lore. 



The day's conversation had just got well under 

 way when three figures of the human enemy were 

 observed to approach. Old rooks inspected them, 

 uneasily, and explained to the young that though 

 the risk was small it was always just as well to 

 keep these animals at a safe distance. " There- 

 fore," said they, " let us all go up." And they 

 set the example by circling skyward. But, alas ! 

 the young rooks did not go. On the contrary, 

 they were very curious about the animals coming 

 over the ground, and straddled along their boughs 

 in search of the very best seeing -perches. Aloft 

 the old birds screamed out in clanging chorus, 



