386 BIRD LIFE AT BINGHA1VTS MELCOMBE 



fallen upon tuneful Nature, when she is taking her 

 siesta, and all the woods are still, 



" The cawing rooks alone 

 Maintain the song of life, 

 And prate around the elms 

 With hoarse, rough colloquy, 

 A music in itself, 

 Or, if not music, joy." 



The rook is the most sociable of birds, not 

 excepting even the starling. They feed in com- 

 pany, they breed in company whereas the star- 

 lings, when they have once paired, disperse widely 

 for the purpose they roost in company ; not 

 indeed in their own rookery, but, what is a sign of 

 greater sociability still, in a vast collection of 

 rookeries a rook Parliament in spots which, for 

 some unknown reason, have attracted them for 

 generations. Shakespeare had noticed as what 

 did he not notice? this peculiarity of the "sable 

 pensioner. 



" Light thickens, and the crow 

 Makes way to the rooky wood, 

 Good things of day begin to droop and drowse 

 Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse." 



Two such " Parliaments of rooks" I have had 

 the opportunity of watching, from early times one 



