134 WILD LIFE IN THE TREE TOPS 



encountered. Some of the nests were so low that their foundations could be 

 touched with the upstretched arm as one stood beneath. 



Most of them had been relieved of their eggs by the oologically inclined 

 visitors to the place, or perhaps by the enthusiastic followers of a game known 

 as * hop-egg.' 



In one case some one had taken the trouble to climb up to a nest in an elder 

 bush, and to fill it with half bricks, having first thrown out the unfortunate 

 young Rooks ! i 



The occupants of the taller trees had not, of course, suffered this sort of 

 hostile treatment, though even they had not got through altogether unscathed ; 

 for some of the nests had been hit by pieces of flying shrapnel, whilst beneath 

 the trees lay the forms of several dead Rooks. Caught up in the branches at 

 the edge of his nest, a male Rook was hanging. Killed no doubt as he attended 

 to the business of nest-building, or the needs of his sitting mate, his body 

 remained swinging in the breeze a warning, one would think, to all ot^er 

 Rooks to betake themselves elsewhere. 



But so complex is the mentality of the wily Rook that his neighbours 

 persisted in their determination to lay their eggs and rear their young within 

 a few yards of his remains ; whilst his mate, quite unruffled by the proximity 

 of her late husband's body, continued to sit closely upon her five eggs. 



Photographically, these nests in the taller trees were without doubt by 

 far the most promising. Little or no foliage existed to hide them, or cause 

 those unhappy white and black patches on an otherwise satisfactory print ; and, 

 in addition, no loafing troops hard put to it to invent an amusement for a 

 Sunday afternoon would be likely to interfere with them ; and lastly, with 

 good luck, the camera might be placed at such an elevation as would include a 

 background of the distant downs instead of the sky. 



So the writer climbed a suitable-looking, though (since a shell had passed 

 clean through the centre of the stem) somewhat shaky beech-tree, and looked 

 across on to a collection of nests which seemed to offer unusual possibilities from 

 a pictorial point of view. 



Photography from this position was not attempted until May 7, and then 

 not until 1 p.m., although the writer had made an early start. For in the 

 meantime he had been treated to an Artillery demonstration the shells bursting 

 with such accuracy and frequency amongst the trees supporting the Rooks' 

 homes as to suggest that at the termination of the bombardment there would 

 be nothing but debris left. 



At length, however, the bombardment died down, and through the clearing 

 smoke the trees once more stood out apparently none the worse for their 

 shaking. 



The writer then learnt that the Battery had finished firing for the day : 

 that the F.O.O. was coming in, and that they were already 'packin up.' 



