O'er Fell and Dale 



were all adult rooks, as the bare patch of grey skin 

 round the base of each black bill clearly indicated ! 

 Whether they were very hungry or were merely giving 

 a display of innate savagery I do not know, but their 

 table manners would have shamed those of a pack of 

 wolves. 



I found the grouse sitting on her two eggs, and as 

 rook stock had begun a steady decline in my estimation, 

 I determined to try her with my camera. First of all a 

 small pile of leafy branches was erected within a few 

 yards of her nest and left to see what would happen. 

 She took not the slightest notice of this change in the 

 landscape, but straightway returned and sat down in 

 the nest. The wee hiding-tent was then erected and 

 carefully covered all over with greenery. Everything 

 being made shipshape I was duly installed with my 

 cameras, and my assistant took his departure, whilst the 

 bird stood watching him from the top of an adjoining 

 stone wall. No sooner had he disappeared round a 

 bend in the beck than away she came and pitched with 

 a flutter of wings close beside me. In the act of walking 

 as sedately as a barn-door fowl on to her eggs she sud- 

 denly caught sight of my lens, and, uttering two or 

 three sharp notes of alarmed protest, flew up the adjoin- 

 ing hillside, and alighting a gunshot off stood perfectly 

 still, with head erect, studying the terrifying eye bound 

 in brass. 



Presently my ear caught the hoarse caw, caw caw, 

 of a number of rooks. Their voices grew louder and 

 louder as they closed in upon me, until there was an 



99 



