MAGPIE FIELDS 149 



picks up a grain of corn in the twinkling of an eye, it 

 would be a moderate calculation to allow this vast flock 

 two sacks a week. Among them there was one white 

 sparrow his white wings showed distinctly among the 

 brown flock. In the most remote country I never ob- 

 served so great a number of these birds at once; the 

 loss to the farmers must be considerable. 



There were a few fine days at the end of the month. 

 One afternoon there rose up a flock of rooks out of a large 

 oak tree standing separate in the midst of an arable field 

 which was then at last being ploughed. This oak is a 

 favourite with the rooks of the neighbourhood, and they 

 have been noticed to visit it more frequently than others. 

 Up they went, perhaps a hundred of them, rooks and 

 jackdaws together cawing and soaring round and round 

 till they reached a great height. At that level, as if they 

 had attained their ballroom, they swept round and round 

 on outstretched wings, describing circles and ovals in the 

 air. Caw-caw ! jack-juck-juck ! Thus dancing in slow 

 measure, they enjoyed the sunshine, full from their feast 

 of acorns. 



Often as one was sailing on another approached and 

 interfered with his course when they wheeled about each 

 other. Soon one dived. Holding his wings at full 

 stretch and rigid, he dived headlong, rotating as he 

 fell, till his beak appeared as if it would be driven into 

 the ground by the violence of the descent. But within 

 twenty feet of the earth he recovered himself and rose 

 again. Most of these dives, for they all seemed to dive 

 in turn, were made over the favourite oak, and they did 

 not rise till they had gone down to its branches. Many 

 appeared about to throw themselves against the boughs. 



Whether they wheeled round in circles, or whether 

 they dived, or simply sailed onward in the air, they did 



