224 MELTON AND HOMESPUN 



out the country to keep the sable-feathered legions 

 within bounds, and such raids can only be successfully 

 carried out during early spring, when the " branchers," 

 though, generally speaking, well able to use their wings, 

 are still fed by the parent-birds. A week or so later one 

 might almost as well walk down to the rookery armed 

 with a broomstick as with a gun or rifle. Master Rook, 

 when able to forage in the neighbouring fields and fend 

 for himself, very soon acquires the sagacity of his pro- 

 genitors, and what creature, feathered or furred, is 

 quicker in sighting a man with a gun than an ancient 

 and cunning old rook ? His cousins, the carrion and 

 hoodie crow might, perchance, be able to give him a 

 point or two in this subject, but I " hae ma doots." 



Cunning and suspicious though it be, the rook, unHke 

 its near relative, the crow, is essentially a sociable bird, and 

 will even nest in the centre of a large town or city if there 

 be suitable trees available. But, as in the case of most 

 species of birds which congregate in large numbers, 

 very keen-sighted sentinels watch closely from the lofty 

 positions in the highest tree-tops everything that occurs 

 down below on Mother Earth. 



It would be hard to find amongst the many feathered 

 races a more devoted consort or more thoughtful parent 

 than the rook. He feeds his mate assiduously while 

 she sits on her clutch of from three to five eggs. He even 

 assists her in the task of incubation, and when the young 

 birds hatch off, both parents are kept pretty busy, 

 from break of day until sundown, supplying their ever- 

 hungry offspring with grubs, etc., and the small pebbles 

 which are so essential to all species of birds that reduce 

 their food by means of the gizzard. 



