192 MY NATURE NOTEBOOK. 



have lately been clearing of worms. This is one of 

 the reasons why the farmer raises one eyebrow when 

 you talk to him of his " friends " the rooks. During 

 a hard winter he likes to see some of his friends on 

 the top of his corn-stacks dead, and tied to sticks 

 as a warning to the others. 



GOOD-NIGHT CLAMOUR. 



Why do the rooks make such a noise when they 

 are retiring to rest ? Why do the starlings assemble 

 to sing a good-night chorus together? Why does 

 the blackbird so often keep up an incessant " chink- 

 chink-chink " when he has retired to the shelter of a 

 hedge for the night ? Why does the pheasant make 

 such a clatter whenever he flies to or from his roost- 

 ing-tree? The same answer does not, probably, fit 

 all these questions ; but we may be sure that none of 

 these birds would be noisy when they are going to 

 bed if they did not gain something by it. The old 

 adage that, if speech is silver, silence is gold, has 

 no application to them, otherwise those of their kinds 

 which kept the gold of silence would have made most 

 profit in the struggle for existence, and have set the 

 fashion for succeeding generations up to date. So 

 far as the rooks are concerned, it is evident that they 

 run no risk by making a noise. They roost on high 

 tree-tops, well beyond the reach of enemies at night. 

 So they lose nothing by making a noise. But what do 

 they gain ? Possibly their uproar is similar in motive 

 to the clamour of a flock of sheep and lambs. In the 

 great multitude of rooks every member has his mate 

 in earlier autumn you hear their queer gurgling 



