THE ROOK. 173 



cheerful, the orderly, the industrious, the discreet, the bene- 

 ficent rook. There, in the aged and stately trees, he builds 

 his wicker castle, chants his rude and monotonous cry the 

 while, dwells among his brethren and his kindred, and looks 

 down on the lord of the manor with as much self-possession 

 as if it were he who suffered the wingless rustic to toil with 

 heavy steps through the sticks that fall from the nest of his 

 superior. 



Nor does he loiter away his time in the manorial bower. 

 He looks after the estate, and gives a very broad and at the 

 same time pointed hint to others, if they would take it. 



When the frost is severe, and the snow lies thick, off he 

 flies to the sea beach or the river side, and inter alia, inspects 

 the embankments, weirs and dams, to notice if the teredo 

 has bored into the posts, or any other injury has been done 

 by small enemies, that can be productive of damage when the 

 thaw and the flood come. Or he comes nearer the house, and 

 examines the compost, in order to see that when you apply it 

 to enrich the fields, you do not at the same time scatter in- 

 sects which will eat up your young plants, and deprive you 

 of your crop. 



When the thaw comes, he hurries to the meadow, and 

 examines the debris which has been cast there by the swollen 

 stream ; and if he finds in it the germ of any noxious thing 

 he pulls it out, so that the blessing of the hill may come 

 upon the valley, pure, wholesome, and without offensive addi- 

 tion. Next he goes to the autumn-sown wheat, and, by a 

 curious instinct, knowing those plants that are sickly, he 

 delves down, and extracts the larva of the cockchaffer, or 

 whatever earth-caterpillar it may be which is only waiting for 

 a few gleams of a warmer sun, in order to render your labour 

 abortive, and compel you to plough and sow that field anew. 

 Again, he is over the pasture, and every stool of grass and 

 plant of clover undergoes a like patient and well-directed 



