WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 291 



Thirdly, if the inquiry be carried still farther back, 

 it is possible that the line taken by the rooks indicates 

 the line of the first clearings in very early days. The 

 clearing away of trees and underwood, by opening the 

 ground and rendering it accessible, must be very 

 attractive to birds, and rooks are particularly fond of 

 following the plough. Now, although the district is 

 at present chiefly meadow land, numbers of these 

 meadows were originally ploughed fields, of which 

 there is evidence in the surface of the fields them- 

 selves, where the regular " lands " and furrows are 

 distinctly visible. 



One or all of these suggestions may perhaps account 

 for the course followed by the rooks. In any case 

 it seems natural to look for the reason in the trees. 

 The same idea applies to the other stream of rooks 

 which leaves the wood for the eastward every morn- 

 ing, flying along the downs. In describing the hill 

 district, evidence was given of the existence of woods 

 or forest land upon the downs in the olden time. De- 

 tached copses and small woods are still to be found ; 

 and it happens that a part of this district, in the 

 line of eastward flight, belonged to a " chase," of 

 which several written notices are extant. 



The habits of rooks seem more regular in winter 

 than in summer. In winter the flocks going out in 

 the morning or returning in the evening appear to 

 pass nearly at the same hour day after day. But in 

 summer they often stay about late. This last summer 

 [1878] I noticed a whole flock, some hundreds in num- 



