160 HISTORY OP 



They keep together in pairs ; and when the offices of court- 

 ship are over, they prepare for making their nests and laying. 

 The old inhabitants of the place are already provided ; the nest 

 which served them for years before, with a little trimming and 

 dressing, will serve very well again ; the difficulty of nestling 

 lies only upon the young ones, who have no nest, and must 

 therefore get up one as well as they can. But not only the ma- 

 terials are wanting, but also the place in which to fix it. Every 

 part of a tree will not do for this purpose, as some branches may 

 not be sufficiently forked ; others may iiot be sufficiently strong; 

 and still others may be too much exposed to the rockings of the 

 wind. The male and female upon this occasion are, for some 

 days, seen examining all the trees of the grove very attentively ; 

 and when they have fixed upon a branch that seems fit for their 

 purpose, they continue to sit upon and observe it very sedulously 

 for two or three days longer. The place being thus determined 

 upon, they begin to gather the materials for their nest ; such as 

 sticks and fibrous roots, which they regularly dispose in the 

 most substantial manner. But here a new and unexpected ob- 

 stacle arises. It often happens that the young couple have 



h.ibitant^ were of course turned about by every change of the wind. Tliey 

 returned and built their nest every year on the same place, till the year 1793; 

 soon after which the spire was taken down. A small copper-plate was en. 

 graved, the size of a ivatch-paper, with a representation of the top of the 

 spire, and the nest ; and so much pleased were the inhabitants and other 

 persons with it, that as many copies were sold as produced the engraver the 

 sum of ten pounds. 



A remarkable circumstance respecting these birds occurred, some years 

 agfo, at Dallam Tower, in Westmoreland, the seat of Daniel Wilson, Esq. 

 There were two groves adjoining to the park ; one of which had for many 

 years been the resort of a number of herons, that regularly every year built 

 and bred there : in the other was a very large rookery. For a long time the 

 two tribes had lived peaceably together. At length, in the spring of 1TT5, 

 the trees of the heronry were cut down, and the young brood perished b 

 the fall of the timber. Tlie parent birds, not willing to be driven from the 

 place, endeavoured to effect a settlement in the rookery. The rooks mado 

 an obstinate resistance ; but after a desperate contest, in the course of 

 which many of the rooks and some of the herons lost their lives, the latter 

 at length succeeded in obtaining possession of some of the trees, and that 

 very spring built their nests afresh. The next season a similar contest took 

 place, which, like the former, terminated by the victory of the herons. 

 After that time peace seemed to be agreed upon between them. The rooks 

 relinquished part of the grove to the herons, to which part alone they con. 

 fined themselves ; and the two communities appeared to live together in as 

 Luiich iiarmony as they did before the dispute. 



