A Thickly-Timbered Country. 287 
according to individual caprice? Why, to go still 
further, do rooks manceuvre in such immense numbers, 
and crows fly only in pairs? The simple truth is that 
birds, like men, have a history. They are unconscious 
of it, but its accomplished facts affect them still and 
shape the course of their existence. Without doubt, 
if we could trace that history back there are good and 
sufficient reasons why rooks prefer to fly in this par- 
ticular locality, to the east and to the north. Some- 
thing may perhaps be learnt by examining the routes 
along which they fly. 
The second division—that which goes northwards, 
after flying little more than a mile in a straight line— 
passes over Wick Farm, and disperses gradually in the , 
meadows surrounding and extending far below it. The 
rooks whose nests are placed in the elms of the Warren 
belong to this division, and, as their trees are the 
nearest to the great central roosting-place, they are 
the first to quit the line of march in the morning, 
descending to feed in the fields around their property. 
On the other hand, in the evening, as the army 
Streams homewards, they are the last to rise and join 
the returning host. 
So that there are often rooks in and about the 
Warren later in the evening after those whose habita- 
tions are farther away have gone by, for, having so 
short a distance to fly, they put off the movement till 
thelast moment. Before watches became so common 
4 possession, the labouring people used, they say, to 
