ROOKS AND ROOK-SHOOTING 225 



And now, having touched upon the merits and de- 

 merits of the rook, let us pass on to the Manor Woods. 

 That incessant chorus of hoarse and angry cawing emanat- 

 ing from the cloud of black spots gyrating and tumbling 

 high over the tops of the giant timber trees is sufficient 

 token that the inhabitants of the rookery have already 

 sighted the unusually large company of men and boys 

 — the former mostly armed with a shot-gun or small- 

 bore rifle, while the latter carry the cartridge-bags, 

 innocent-looking ash plants and blackthorn sticks culled 

 from hedgerows and woodlands — who on this quiet, 

 peaceful spring evening approach their sanctuary in 

 laughing knots of twos and threes. Long enough before 

 the first shot is fired, the majority of the old birds have 

 sought the safe harbourage afforded by a neighbouring 

 covert. True, a few of the hens, anxious regarding the 

 fate of their respective families, remain in the vicinity 

 of the nests until the commencement of shooting. Never- 

 theless, upon the slain being counted, a precious small 

 percentage of the same are found to be in mature plumage. 



The rookery, which is one of the largest in the county, 

 is reputed to have been in existence well over a century, 

 and this evening thirteen guns, including the squire, 

 the sporting rector and his equally sporting curate, the 

 local medico, the squire's agent, several yeomen, tenant 

 farmers, and myself, are to take toll of the dusky, squark- 

 ing inhabitants thereof; while a number of fustian-clad 

 yokels have been recruited from the gardens, stables, 

 and cow-byres to act as beaters, or rather rook-scarers. 



The guns are now stationed at different points under 

 the great elms; the rustics whoop and j^ell and thrash 

 the gnarled trunks of the trees with their ash wands; 

 Q 



