Vi 
THE CAWING OF ROOKS 
HE cawing of rooks is one of the characteristic 
sounds of spring, and it is one of good cheer. 
There is vigor in it and exultation in the victory 
of life over materials, for the building of big nests 
on the delicate branches of the swaying tree-tops is 
a real achievement. The cawing is the voice of 
strong-willed mates and of jealous parents. It is 
more than the babel of a crowd; it is the vocifera- 
tion of big-brained creatures that have got past 
simple gregariousness, and live in what is more than 
the adumbration of a society. We like it too because. 
it is one of the earliest awakening voices of spring. 
As the child’s poem says: 
Buds of green on branch and stem 
Glisten in the morning sun, 
For the crows have wakened them, 
And they open one by one, 
We have been listening these days to the cawing 
of the rooks, and they certainly have a considerable 
vocabulary. There is probably no language in the 
strict sense—man has a monopoly of that; but the 
rooks have words just as dogs have, definite uttered 
sounds which have definite meanings. Words are 
32 
