274. Wild Lifein a Southern County. 
he puts the flock up on one side of the field, they 
lazily sail to a distant corner, and when he gets there 
go back again. They are fully aware that he cannot 
injure them if they keep a certain distance; but this 
perpetual driving to and fro makes them suspicious. 
In the meadows it is rare for them to be shot at, and 
they are consequently much less timid. 
At the same time they can perfectly well distinguish 
a gun from a walking-stick. If you enter a meadow 
with a gun under your arm, and find a flock feeding, 
they immediately cease searching for food and keep a 
strict watchon your movements ; and if you approach, 
they are off directly. If you carry a walking-stick 
only, you may pass within thirty yards sometimes, 
and they take little notice, provided you use the 
stick in the proper way. But now lift it, and point it 
at the nearest rook, and in an instant he is up with a 
‘caw’ of alarm—though he knows it is not a gun— 
and flies just above the surface of the ground till he 
considers himself safe from possibility of danger. 
Often the whole flock will move before that gesture. 
It is noticeable that no wild creatures, birds or animals, 
like anything pointed at them: you may swing your 
stick freely, but point it, and off goes the finch that 
showed no previous alarm.. So too, dogs do not seem 
easy if a stick is pointed at them. 
Rooks are easily approached in the autumn, when 
gorging the acorns. They may often be seen flying 
carrying an acorn in the bill, Sometimes a flock will 
