WATCHING ROOKS 291 



" As light struggles out of the darkness, the silence 

 is broken more and more frequently, at some point 

 or other of the plantation, so that the sound is dis- 

 seminated over a larger and larger space, till, for some 

 little while before the flight, the whole rookery seems 

 to be talking at one and the same time. In reality, 

 however, there is a constant cessation and renewal on 

 the part of each individual bird. 



"At 6.30 the sounds take a deeper and more em- 

 phatic tone. There is more solemnity, more meaning, 

 and the meaning grows plainer and plainer as the 

 asseveration becomes more and more emphatic, that 

 'it is, yes is, is really, positively is, is, is, is, is the 

 morning.' 



"At 6.35 there is the light, joyous 'chug-a, chug-a, 

 chug-a,' besides which one catches if one has a good 

 ear ' hook, chook, hook, took hook-a-hoo-loo 

 chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, polyglot, 

 polyglot.' 



" Then there is a question a serious and solemnly 

 propounded question 'Quow-yow?' The answer 

 from another rook is immediate and undoubted 

 ' Yow-quow.' 



" There are sounds which just miss being articulate 

 and just evade one's efforts to write them down. It is 

 significant that I have to use the word 'talking' to 

 describe the rook's utterances. It is the one word ; 

 another would sound forced and strained. 



" Throughout the babel, there is a tendency for it 

 to sink and rise in sudden accentuations and diminish- 

 ments. Now there is a diminishment, and a bird 

 in the tree next to mine gives a sleepy stretch out 

 of one wing, which has all the appearance of a yawn. 



