56 SPRING RAMBLES 



I found my way down the pathless hill, disturb- 

 ing thousands of rabbits, through a wood, and 

 across green fields into the turnpike road. The 

 only thing I noted was what seemed to me a 

 curious fact, that rooks, those singular birds, 

 should have established a rookery at a corner 

 where four roads meet, in the elms overhanging 

 the turnpike road. Why could they not go away 

 into the woods, far from the haunts of men ? No, 

 here they were, here they had been for many 

 years, with their nests just over the heads of every 

 passer-by who chose to pot them or their young 

 ones sitting outside the nests the truth is they are 

 sociable birds, they love the haunts of men, in 

 spite of the instinct, the knowledge they possess, 

 that man is their worst enemy, and will shoot them 

 whenever they come within reach of his gun. It 

 is not as if they were ignorant they know exactly 

 whether it is a gun or walking-stick you point at 

 them. A quarter of a century ago a number of 

 pairs of rooks established themselves in some elms 

 above a new house then being built in the village 

 of Hampstead ; they were, of course, the cause of 

 its being called Rookwood^ and there in those trees 

 they have nested and reared their young in un- 

 disturbed happiness till the beginning of this year. 

 Then it was that a large board was put up on the 

 garden wall announcing the fact that the place 

 their place was to be sold or let. 



At this board they took great offence ; they 

 immediately gave notice that they would quit their 



