The Evensong of the Rooks 



4 4 The evening- proceedings and manoeuvres of the rooks are curious 

 and amusing in the autumn. 



Just before dusk they return in long strings from the foraging of 

 the day, and wheel round in the air, and sport and dive in a playful 

 manner, all the while exerting their voices, and making a loud caw- 

 ing, which, being blended and softened by distance, becomes a 

 confused noise or chiding ; or rather a pleasing murmur, very engag- 

 ing to the imagination, and not unlike the cry of a pack of hounds 

 in hollow, echoing woods, or the rushing of the wind in tall trees, 

 or the tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly shore. 



When this ceremony is over, with tne last gleam of day, they 

 retire for the night to the deep woods. 



We remember a little girl who, as she was going to bed, used to 

 remark that the rooks were saying their prayers ; and yet this child 

 was much too young to be aware that the scriptures have said of the 

 Deity that 4 he feedeth the ravens who call upon him.' " 



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