BTHD3. 159 



Olid insects, living in society, and often suffering general casti- 

 giition from the flock for the good of the community. 



The rook, as is well known, builds in woods and forests in 

 the neighbourhood of man, and sometimes makes clioice of 

 groves in the very midst of cities for the place of its retreat and 

 security. In these it establishes a kind of legal constitution, by 

 which all intruders are excluded from coming to live among 

 them, and none suffered to build but acknowledged natives of 

 the place. I have often amused myself with observing their 

 plan of policy from my window in die Temple, that looks upon 

 a grove where they have made a colony in the midst of the city. 

 At the commencement of spring, the rookery, which during the 

 continuance of winter seemed to have been deserted, or only 

 guarded by about five or six, like old soldiers in a garrison, now 

 begins to be once more frequented ; and in a short time all the 

 bustle and hurry of business is fairly commenced. Where these 

 numbers resided during the winter is not easy to guess ; perhaps 

 in the trees of hedge-rows, to be nearer their food. In spring, 

 however, they cultivate their native trees ; and, in the places 

 where they were themselves hatched, they prepare to propagate 

 a future progeny.* 



• A large colony of rooks had subsisted many years in a grove on the banks 

 of the river IrAvell, near Manchester. One serene evening, says Dr Percival, 

 I placed myself within the view of it, and marked with attention the vari- 

 ous labours, pastimes, and evolutions of this crowded society. The idle 

 members amused themselves with chasing' each other through endless 

 mazes ; and in their flight, they made the air resound with an infinitude of 

 discordant voices. In the midst of these playful exertions, it imfortunately 

 hfippened that one rook struck his beak against the wing of another. The 

 sufferer instantly fell into the river. A general cry of distress ensued ; the 

 birds hovered, with every expression of anxiety, over their distressed com. 

 panion. Animated by their sympathy, and perhaps by the language of coun. 

 eel known to themselves, he sprang into the air, and, by one strong effort, 

 reached the point of a rock which projected over the water. Their joy be. 

 came loud and universal ; but, alas! it soon changed into notes of lamenta. 

 tion ; for the poor wounded bird, in attempting to fly toward his nest, 

 dropped again into the river, and was drowned, amidst the moans of the 

 \\h()Ie fraternity. 



In the year 1783, a pair of rooks, after an unsxiccessful endeavoiu* to esta. 

 blish themselves in a rookery, at no great distance from the Royal Exchange 

 (it Newcastle, were compelled to abandon the attempt, and take refuge in 

 the spire of that building ; and although constantly interrupted by other 

 rooks, they built their nest on the top af the ii'ne, and reared their young, 

 unilisturbed by the noise of the populace below them ; the r>est and its in- 



