254 Force of Habit. 



and as if aware of the precise moment at which to 

 move. They have their laws, from which there is 

 no deviation : they are handed down unaltered from 

 generation to generation. Tradition, indeed, seems 

 to be their main guide, as it is with savage human 

 tribes. They have their particular feeding grounds ; 

 and so you may notice that, comparing ten or a 

 dozen fields, one or two will almost always be 

 found to be frequented by rooks while the rest are 

 vacant. 



Here, for instance, is a meadow clos'e to a farm- 

 stead what is usually called the home-field, from 

 its proximity to a house here day after day rooks 

 alight and spend hours in it, as much at their ease 

 as the nag or the lambs brought up by hand. 

 Another field, at a distance, which to the human eye 

 appears so much more suitable, being retired, quiet, 

 and apparently quite as full of food, is deserted ; 

 they scarcely come near it. The home-field itself is 

 not the attraction, because other home-fields are not 

 so favored. 



The tenacity with which rooks cling to localities is 

 often illustrated near great cities, where buildings 

 have gradually closed in around their favorite haunts. 

 Yet on the small waste spots covered with cinders 

 and dustheaps, barren and unlovely, the rooks still 

 alight ; and you may see them, when driven up from 

 such places, perching on the telegraph wires over 

 the very steam of the locomotives as they puff into 

 the station. 



I think that neither considerations of food, water, 

 shelter, or convenience, are always the determining 

 factors in the choice made by birds of the spots they 



