48 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



touches to the trees of some ancestral park. The 



most hopeful plan to tempt them is to put up 



old empty nests or brooms, or to put rooks' 



Rookery e ^ s * nto a nest tnat happens to ^ e m tne 

 desired place for the colony. Their strong 

 preference for certain sites is curious ; they will crowd 

 nest-trees on one side of a road, and yet pay no 

 attention to other trees of the same sort, seemingly 

 more perfect for their needs, and only a few yards dis- 

 tant. We have watched a case where for twenty years 

 the rooks remained faithful to the original nest -trees of 

 the colony. About ten years ago half these trees were 

 cut down, and even then the evicted rooks would not 

 build in trees across the road, though their tops 

 touched the tops of the favoured trees, which became 

 more crowded with nests than ever. But two or three 

 seasons ago their favourite nesting-tree, a beech with 

 far-spread top, began to show signs of disease ; and 

 then, after a deal of wrangling, two or three pairs were 

 permitted to nest in the trees near by, hitherto de- 

 spised. In the next season there were nineteen nests 

 in these trees, and in the next twenty-six. The old 

 beech meantime grew more and more feeble, as the 

 rooks perhaps discovered by some brittleness in the 

 twigs at the top ; and after one more year, though it 

 bore foliage, but not so luxuriantly as usual, the tree 

 gave shelter to only two nests. And now the long- 

 despised trees are the home of almost the entire 

 colony. 



