194 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



any bird, as well as omnivorous crows, when deprived of its 

 favourite food, can subsist and even thrive on what it likes 

 far less, and would indeed otherwise reject. 



An appropriate rookery surrounds Kames Castle, and to 

 watch the order and discretion of the sable colony when 

 superintending the education of their respective families was 

 a favourite pastime of mine. From the time they emerge 

 from the wicker nursery, and are promoted to the schoolroom 

 as " branchers," the system of rook instruction begins. They 

 are taught to use a convenient bough always above the nest, 

 and the parents, in bringing food, approach the nest-tree 

 where they can be first discerned from this look-out twig. 

 At first, when fed, the perchers were apt to plump down into 

 the nest ; but soon becoming stronger, they hopped and flut- 

 tered from spray to spray, but always above the sheltering 

 nest, and ready to drop into it at the warning caw of the old 

 ones. The flapping wings and eager calls of the young often 

 warned me that the parents were approaching long before I 

 saw them myself; and I was often amazed at the intuition 

 of the different young broods in detecting the approach of 

 their own father or mother among the black multitude hover- 

 ing and cawing in the air. The branchers were not encour- 

 aged to take an adventurous flight to the adjacent tree until 

 quite strong and fully fledged ; after this they soon learned to 

 follow the flock to the adjoining feeding-grounds. 



From their cheerful social habits inviting observation and 

 study, rooks and the interior economy of their commonwealth 

 have furnished matter for many curious tales. I give the 

 following instance, which took place recently : There had been 

 for years a rook's nest on a tree in the back-garden of a house 

 in Moray Place, Edinburgh. During the winter of 1863 a 

 large company of rooks pulled it quite down. The following 

 spring a pair rebuilt the nest, laid eggs, and began to sit. 

 An immense troop of their black kindred soon surrounded 

 them, killed the male, who fell into the area, slew the female 



