DESERTION OF ROOKERY 381 



so well known to readers of Carlyle's Biography, 

 left, in a body, their nests and nestlings, and have 

 not since returned. The villagers predicted disaster 

 to the family or neighbourhood, and disaster 

 promptly came. In this year again, 1904, their 

 fears have been raised to fever pitch by a similar 

 abandonment of a rookery by its rooks at Candover 

 House, only two miles from the Grange. What is 

 going to happen next, they may well ask. Rooks, 

 as a rule, build near an old and large house chiefly, 

 I suppose, because such houses have, as a rule, old 

 and large elm trees near them ; and as such elms 

 have a way of coming down suddenly, the rooks 

 which tenant them have need of all their second 

 sight, and must always feel under a provisional 

 notice to quit. A friend, Dr J. Brunton Blaikie, 

 has described to me the circumstances attending the 

 desertion of a rookery in Roxburghshire, which fell 

 within his own observation, some twenty years ago. 

 A new rookery had been formed in a clump of 

 fir trees, which increased so rapidly that, in four 

 years, it numbered a hundred and fifty nests. 

 It was far from human habitation, and was, 

 therefore, more open to be molested by egg or bird 

 stealers. On one occasion, two men were in the act 

 of robbing the nests, when one of them, who had 



