THE ROOKERY. 27 



fields, and then wheeling down upon the trees. 

 Who was it, who so happily applied to rooks 

 the lines from the sixth ^Eneid, where Virgil, 

 speaking of the descent of ^neas and his guide 

 upon the Elysian plains, says 



" Devenere locos Isetos, et amoena vireta 

 Fortunate rum nemorum, sedesque beatas " ? 



" And down they came upon the happy haunts, 

 The pleasant greenery of the favoured groves 

 Their blissful resting-place." 



There are many secrets about the rooks which I 

 can never solve. Why do they build in the Elm 

 rather than the Beech ? My best trees are Beeches, 

 but there are only two nests in them, whereas in a 

 single Elm there are no less than ten. Why, 

 again, do the old birds prevent the young ones 

 from building in some particular tree ? Sometimes, 

 no doubt, there may be an unhappy association of 

 the past, as in a case mentioned in Hawthorne's 

 English Note Book, where in a garden, which I 

 took him to see, not very far from this, some 

 nests were once destroyed in a clump of trees, 

 and never since has nest been built there. 

 Sometimes, I think, because the rooks like to re- 

 serve certain trees as storehouses, from whence 

 to gather their sticks. Again, how far is rook- 



