THE ROOK. 133 



an amazing flock. Sometimes they pass on without 

 stopping, and are joined by those which have spent 

 the day here. At other times they make my park 

 their place of rendezvous, and cover the ground in 

 vast profusion, or perch upon the surrounding trees- 

 After tarrying here for a certain time, every rook 

 takes wing. They linger in the air for a while, in 

 slow revolving circles, and then they all proceed to 

 Nostell Priory, which is their last resting-place for 

 the night. In their morning and evening passage, 

 the loftiness or lowliness of their flight seems to be 

 regulated by the state of the weather. When it 

 blows a hard gale of wind, they descend the valley 

 with astonishing rapidity, and just skim over the tops 

 of the intervening hills, a few feet above the trees : 

 but, when the sky is calm and clear, they pass 

 through the heavens at a great height, in regular 

 and easy flight. 



Sometimes these birds perform an evolution, which 

 is, in this part of the country, usually called the 

 shooting of the rooks. Farmers tell you, that this 

 shooting portends a coming wind. He who pays at- 

 tention to the flight of birds has, no doubt, observed 

 this downward movement. When rooks have risen 

 to an immense height in the air, so that, in ap- 

 pearance, they are scarcely larger than the lark, they 

 suddenly descend to the ground, or to the tops of 

 trees exactly under them. To effect this, they come 

 headlong down, on pinion a little raised, but not ex- 

 panded, in a zig-zag direction (presenting alternately 

 their back and breast to you), through the resisting 

 air, which causes a noise similar to that of a rushing 



K3 



