WHEN ROOKS BUILD 49 



In February, the rooks pay visits to their home-trees, 

 wheeling and squawking round about, and demolish- 

 ing old nests. On fine February evenings 

 When they linger after sunset before setting off 

 Build to their winter roosting-place. A few, 

 who have begun work on new nests, turn 

 back to the trees undecided, then turn again after 

 their companions. Not until the beginning of 

 March do the rooks seriously set about their building, 

 in mid-March deserting the great roosting-places of 

 winter and mounting guard over their rough nests of 

 sticks. 



f * 



Rooks would seem to believe that while there is life 



there is hope. A dead rook displayed before other 



rooks for the first time attracts no particular 



Ways attention beyond a casual inspection. But 

 of the . . * .. ... JL . 



Crows " a r k is wounded, and especially if it hops 



about with a broken wing, other rooks will 

 swoop about it, and hover above with wonderful 

 perseverance, squawking all the time excitedly, even 

 in spite of a man with a gun. We have seen a hun- 

 dred rooks perch on a fence to take stock of a relative 

 caught in a trap set to pheasant eggs. 



The cunning of rooks, crows, and magpies is very 

 marked at nesting-time ; and the keeper who would 

 shoot them by hiding and waiting within shot of their 

 nests may wait for hours in vain if the birds have seen 



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