218 Wild Life in a Southern County 



seconds goes after them. Had they the sense to repeat 

 this operation, they might often draw the young one away 

 from danger ; as for their cawing, it does not seem to be 

 quite understood by their offspring, who have hardly yet 

 learned their own language. 



To appreciate this effort on the part of the old birds, it 

 must be recollected that immediately after the first shot 

 the great mass of the old rooks fly off in alarm. They go 

 to some distance and then wheel round and come back at 

 an immense height, and there, collected in loose order, 

 circle round and round, cawing as they sail. For an old 

 rook to remain in or near the rookery when once the firing 

 has commenced is the exception, and must be a wonderful 

 effort of moral courage, for of all birds rooks seem most 

 afraid of a gun ; and naturally so, having undergone, when 

 themselves young, a baptism of fire. Those that escape 

 slaughter are for the most part early birds that come to 

 maturity before the majority, and so leave the trees before 

 the date fixed for shooting arrived, or acquire a power of 

 flight sufficient to follow their parents on the first alarm 

 to a safe distance. They have, therefore, a good oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing the destruction of their cousins, and 

 do not forget the lesson. 



Although the young birds upon getting out of the nest 

 under ordinary conditions seem to like to wander, yet if 

 they are driven out or startled by the shot they do not 

 then at once endeavour to make for the open country or to 

 spread abroad, but appear rather to cling to the place, as 

 if the old nests could shelter them. After a while they 

 begin to understand the danger of this proceeding, and 

 half an hour's rapid firing causes the birds to spread about 

 and get into the trees in the hedges at some distance. 

 There of course they are pursued, or killed the next day, 



