THE ROOK 371 



their sufferings, should any one of them happen to 

 flutter or fall to the ground ; so sharp-sighted that 

 they always know a gun from a walking-stick, and 

 often, it is said, a Sunday from a working-day, 

 and yet so inobservant as often to mistake a hamper, 

 tied to a branch, for an old nest, and hasten to 

 build their own new ones alongside of it ; living, 

 lastly, in a community so highly organised that no 

 fresh tree can ever be occupied without the formal 

 consent of the whole body that they never light 

 upon the ground to feed, without stationing a 

 sentinel to watch over their safety, on whose fidelity 

 they implicitly rely, or to whose note of alarm or 

 word of command they give instant and implicit 

 obedience ; so law-abiding that they have often 

 been seen to assemble on the ground, place some 

 offender in the midst, as in a court of justice, 

 discuss his case in all its bearings, and, after due 

 deliberation, fall upon and put him to death, and 

 yet who, as individuals, have no scruple of conscience 

 in committing petty larcenies of every description 

 on one another, if only they can do so unobserved, 

 carrying off the sticks, the food, or even the eggs 

 from the nest of their nearest neighbour. Reconcile, 

 if you can, these and half a dozen other similar 

 contradictions in this familiar and delightful tenant 



