238 Courage of Old Rooks. 



distance from the rookery, out of the excitement of 

 the sport, you may sometimes see two old rooks, one 

 on each side of a young one, cawing to it with all 

 their might. The young bird is, perhaps, on the 

 ground, or on a low hedge, and the old birds are 

 evidently endeavoring to get it to move. Yet they 

 have not learned the only way in which that can be 

 done i.e. by starting themselves and flying a short 

 distance, and waiting, when the young bird will al- 

 most invariably follow. 



If you approach the trio the two old birds at once 

 take flight, seeing your gun, and the young bird in a 

 few seconds goes after them. Had they the sense to 

 repeat this operation, they might often draw the young 

 one away from danger ; as for their cawing, it does 

 not seem to be quite understood by their offspring, 

 who have hardly yet learned their own language. 



To appreciate this effort on the part of the old 

 birds, it must be recollected that immediately after 

 the first shot the great mass of the old rooks fly off 

 in alarm. They go to some distance and then wheel 

 round and come back at an immense height, and 

 there, collected in loose order, circle round and 

 round, cawing as they sail. For an old rook to 

 remain in or near the rookery when once the firing 

 has commenced is the exception, and must be a won- 

 derful effort of moral courage, for of all birds rooks 

 seem most afraid of a gun ; and naturally so, hav- 

 ing undergone, when themselves young, a baptism of 

 fire. Those that escape slaughter are for the most 

 part early birds that come to maturity before the 

 majority, and so leave the trees before the date fixed 

 for shooting arrived, or acquire a power of flight 



