CHAPTER XIV. 



The rookery Building nests Young birds Rook - shooting 

 Stealing rooks Antics in the air Mode of flight White rooks. 



THE city built by the rooks in the elms of the great 

 pasture field (the Warren, near Wick farmhouse) 

 is divided into two main parts, the trees standing in 

 two rows, separated by several hundred yards of 

 sward. But the inhabitants appear to be all more 

 or less related, for they travel amicably in the same 

 flock and pay the usual visit to the trees at the same 

 hour. Some scattered elms form a line of communica- 

 tion between the chief quarters, and each has one or 

 more nests in it. Besides these, the oaks in the hedge- 

 rows surrounding the field support a few nests, grouped 

 three or four in close neighbourhood. In some trees 

 near the distant ash-copse there are more nests, 

 whose owners probably sprang from the same stock, 

 but were exiled, or migrated, and do not hold much 

 communion with the capital. 



In early days men seem to have frequently dug 

 their entrenchments or planted their stockades on 

 the summit of hills. To the rooks their trees are 

 their hills, giving security from enemies. The wooden 



