162 Rooks and Rookeries. Bj'- James SmaiL 



observer's comprehension. In the High Street of Kirkcaldy, for 

 instance, during three or four days in the autumn of the years 

 1880-1 and 2 I noticed, at first with some surprise, that rooks sat 

 in the mornings and afternoons in such numbers on the roof of the 

 George Hotel, which is in the High Street of the town, that they 

 covered nearly the whole slates ; and with the exception of a few 

 which sat on. the next building, they did not, so far I could make 

 out, assemble or rest in large numbers on any other house in 

 the town. Numbers of people when they notice rooks shooting 

 down the wind to their nests or sheltering wood, predict change 

 of weather; whereas it is the only very speedy way by which 

 they can reach the desired haven from a very high altitude. It 

 is a very quick graceful movement. The rook may be two 

 hundred feet above its nest ; and with a view of reaching it by 

 the quickest mode, it dives suddenly and with great velocity 

 in three or four angled breaks, and reaches its abode in two or 

 three seconds. 



If the spring is early, rooks begin to build their nests about the 

 close of February and beginning of March ; and notwithstanding 

 what is popularly believed to the contrary, they do as much in 

 the way of laying the foundations of their airy dwellings on any 

 good fresh day at that time as on the first Sunday of March. 

 The old birds in a large rookery mostly take up their old nests 

 with little or no molestation from their brethren, but matters are 

 very different when strange rooks and those rooks that were 

 fledglings in the previous year attempt to take up house. Those 

 unfortunates have for at least a month to endure the hazard of a 

 bitter war, for the fighting over nest-sites is really furious ; and 

 to watch the excited birds doing battle over a smaU sprinkling of 

 foundation-sticks is often amusing. When the opposing birds 

 are busy fighting over a half-built nest, it often occurs that some 

 observing rooks dart on the unfinished structure and in a few 

 moments carry off the whole material to their own nests. Again, 

 over a single nest-hold a dozen rooks may be seen hotly fighting 

 and screaming, sending nest-sticks and small clouds of feathers 

 into the air, bringing one in mind of a brawl among a few ter- 

 magants, when caps and hair are seen flying on the wind. For 

 several years there was a solitary rook nest on a tree in the 

 grounds of Ednam House, Kelso ; and I have seen as many as 

 eight rooks fighting over it when it was being built. There 

 were other places as good for nesting on the same tree, but jeal- 



