BOOK SHOOTING.] 



SHOOTING, 



[book shooting. 



certain of success, particularly about the dusk 

 of the evening ; and, if you are as great a 

 zealot as we have been at the sport, try the 



grey of the morning, which we have commonly 

 found the best time, because the best employed 

 for this purpose." 



CHAPTER XIII, 



TiOOK SHOOTING. 



EoOK shooting is excellent sport, and is followed 

 Jn the month of May. The rook is about the 

 size of the carrion crow, and is very like it, 

 except in its glossy plumage. The base of the 

 bill and nostrils, as far as the eyes, is covered 

 with a white skin, which constitutes one of the 

 points of difference between it and the common 

 carrion crow. It is gregarious, and collects in 

 vast multitudes at morning and evening, to 

 repair and return to its feeding and resting- 

 place. During the breeding-time rooks live 

 together in large societies, and build their nests 

 on trees close to each other, and, not unfre- 

 quently, even in the heart of populous cities, 

 says Mr. Hone, in his Every-Day Booh. 



Besides insects, rooks feed on different kinds 

 of grain, and cause some inconvenience to the 

 farmer ; but to whatever extent this may be, it 

 seems greatly repaid by the good they do to 

 him, in extirpating the maggots of some of the 

 most destructive of the beetle tribe. In 

 Suffolk, and in some parts of Norfolk, the 

 farmers find it beneficial to encourage the 

 breed of rooks, as the only means of freeing 

 their ground from the grub which produces 

 the cock-chafer, which, in this state, destroys 

 the roots of corn and grass to such a degree, 

 that there are some pieces of pasture-land 

 where you might turn up the turf with your 

 foot. 



These birds are sometimes seen in flocks so 

 great as to darken the air in their flight. 

 They build their nests on high trees, close to 

 each other ; generally selecting a large clump 

 of the tallest for this purpose. When once 

 settled, they, every year, frequent the same 

 2jlace. They are, however, bad neighbours to 

 each other ; for they are continually fighting 

 59i 



and pulling to pieces each other's nests. 

 These proceedings seem unfavourable to their 

 living in such close community : and yet, if a 

 pair offer to build on a separate tree, the 

 nest is plundered and demolished at once. 

 Some unhappy couples are not permitted to 

 finish their nests until the rest have all com- 

 pleted their buildings ; for, as soon as they get 

 a few sticks together, a party comes and de- 

 molishes the whole. It generally happens 

 that one of the pair is stationed to keep guard, 

 while the other goes abroad for materials. 

 From their conduct in these particulars, our 

 cant-word rooJcing, for cheating, originated. 



As soon as the rooks have finished their 

 nests, and before they lay, the cocks begin to 

 feed the hens, who receive their bounty with a 

 fondling tremulous voice, fluttering wings, and 

 all the little blandishments that are expressed 

 by the young while in a helpless state. This 

 gallant deportment of the males is continued 

 throughout the whole season of incubation. 



There seems to exist a wonderful antipathy 

 between these birds and the raven. It is said, 

 that as soon as a raven builds her nest in a 

 tree adjoining a rookery, all the rooks immedi- 

 ately forsake the spot. At a rookery at 

 Broomham, near Hastings, upon a raven 

 building her nest in one of the trees, all the 

 rooks forsook tlie spot; they, however, returned 

 to their haunts in the autumn, and built their 

 nests there the succeeding year. It is not 

 di£B.cult to account for this antipathy. The 

 raven will scarcely suffer any bird whatever to 

 come within a quarter of a mile of its own 

 nest, being very fierce in defending it. Be- 

 sides, it seizes the young rooks from their 

 nests, to feed its own young. 



