IMPERIAL ROOKS 51 



would find little difference between a rook and a crow 



in the hand. If a pair of crows were pitted in a duel 



against a pair of rooks, the balance 



J he of power would make the odds slightly 



Crow as 



Terrorist m the crows' favour no doubt. But one 



imagines the rooks would still have a sporting 

 chance. Probably crows have a black enough repu- 

 tation among other birds to inspire a general fear. 

 And rooks are cowards. It is a common sight to see 

 them put to shameful flight by peewits or missel- 

 thrushes when they have ventured near the others' 

 nesting-places. Yet a rook could kill a missel-thrush 

 or peewit if it had the pluck to fight. The game- 

 keeper knows that the hissing and spitting of a sitting 

 partridge will cause a rook to approach her very 

 cautiously. A jackdaw, one would say, has ten times 

 the spirit of a rook. 



We have a little story of how some rooks paid a pretty 



compliment to an Empress. The preceding tenant of 



the Empress Eugenie's place at Farnborough 



Rooks * s sa ^ to k ave s P ent hundreds of pounds in a 

 vain attempt to induce rooks to build in the 

 trees. Old brooms were hoisted real rooks' nests, 

 with and without eggs, were fixed in the most tempting 

 sites among the tree-tops young rooks were pro- 

 cured and given every attention and some were even 

 hatched and reared artificially. But the rooks refused 



