158 SPRING. 



to believe that they settle on the preceding evening 

 where their morning route is to be, or rather the state 

 of the atmosphere has the same effect upon them all, 

 for they come out at very different times and rather in 

 a straggling manner, in the morning, while in the 

 evening they are more dense. When they arrive at 

 the ground for the day, which they often fly to for 

 several miles without stopping, they disperse, unless 

 when there is a newly turned up field, and then they 

 absolutely blacken' that all over. 



In the neighbourhood of the rookery to which we 

 allude, that is within five or six miles of it, there 

 were smaller ones, some of which were reported to be 

 colonists from the great one, and some had remained in 

 these localities beyond the memory of the country 

 people. These surrounded a considerable space, or 

 rather were spotted upon points in the circumference 

 of a considerable space, in which there was no rookery; 

 and it was no uncommon thing to see the different 

 flocks moving toward their respective points of the 

 horizon at the same moment. We have seen a 

 straggler join himself to the wrong flock, follow it for 

 a little, find out his mistake, and then wheel round, 

 and post after his nation with all the wing that he 

 could. 



What may be the operating principle in animal 

 associations we have no means of knowing; and 

 therefore, after all the philosophic poetry, or poetic 

 philosophy, that has been expended upon the subject, 

 the theory of the matter is still very like a theory of 

 the tides which the Rev. Thomas Clement, curate of 

 Brendon, in the county of Devon, fancied he "might 



