144 SHOOTING. 



If the bird be woimded, and can flutter along- the ground, the 

 sympathizer appears to animate him to make fresh exertions by 

 incessant cries, flying a little distance before him, and beckoning 

 him to try and follow. It is saidthat even when a dead bird has 

 been hung in terrorem, to a stake in a field, he has been visited by 

 some of his former friends, but as soon as they found that the case 

 was hopeless, they have generally abandoned that field altogether. 



As soon as the young rooks leave the nest, they are fit for the 

 sportsman's gun. There is a much better chance, however, of 

 killing and getting them when they leave the nest and sit upon 

 the branches of some neighbouring tree. These are called branc ^>ers. 

 When the young rooks are sitting on the edge of the nest, if shot, 

 they almost invariably tumble into the nest, or if only wounded, 

 hang to it with singular tenacity. When they sit on tlie branches 

 apart from the iftst, and are killed or wounded, they generally faU 

 to the ground. 



_We have often been highly amused with the apparently in-, 

 stinctive care and abhorrence which rooks manifest for a gun. In' 

 many parts of England, the countiy people generally firmly believe 

 that these birds can smell powder, from the singular adroitness 

 they display in detecting the presence of the deadly instrument. 

 We have often tried them with a stick, or pole, like a gun ; but 

 they always seemed to be aware of the difference between the sham 

 and the real instrument. Their instinctive manoeuvres as to this 

 matter are known to all sportsmen who ever carried a gun. 



