WASTE OF LABOUR 375 



their materials, in building. I have watched them 

 at Melcombe fly over trees of every variety, suitable 

 to their purpose, in order that they may visit Mount 

 Pleasant, half a mile away, and there break off 

 twigs for their growing habitation. Back the bird 

 comes, with a stick sometimes longer than itself, 

 which it often drops half-way, from sheer exhaustion. 

 It never cares to pick it up, but goes straight back 

 again to get another. If, during the delicate work 

 of interlacing it with the fabric, he drops it to the 

 ground, there it lies and will always continue to lie. 

 The ground beneath a rookery is strewn with sticks 

 numerous enough to construct double the number of 

 the nests that there are in the trees above. The 

 rooks at Melcombe have, of late years, deserted, 

 in great part, the stately elms of the avenue, and 

 transferred themselves to the younger and more 

 vigorous ash and oak and fir trees of the plantation 

 and the fish-ponds, two hundred yards away. The 

 little migration is a danger-signal which all can 

 understand; but nothing can be done to avert the 

 danger. 



There is an Indian proverb, which Lord 

 Lawrence was fond of quoting, " Disputes about 

 land are best settled on the land," and when the 

 nest of a too self-assertive rook is built in a tree in 



