WATCHING ROOKS 271 



about the fields, even though at a fair height above 

 the trees ; their powers of flight in each case seem 

 of a very different kind. They can also soar to 

 some extent, rising higher and higher on outspread 

 wings as they sweep round and round in irregular 

 circles — like gulls, but far less perfectly, and they 

 have to flap the wings more often. Add to this 

 their downward-rushing swoops, their twists, turns, 

 tumbles, zig-zaggings, and all manner of erratic aerial 

 evolutions, and it must be conceded that the powers 

 of flight which they possess are beyond those with 

 which we generally associate them in our mind. 



Seen thus, trooping homewards, in all their many 

 moods and veins, 



"Whether they take Cervantes' serious air. 

 Or laugh and shake in Rabelais' easy-chair," 



their flight, combined with their multitude, is full of 

 effects. To-day their widely extended bands were 

 often, like so many black snowstorms filling a great 

 part of the sky. But at no time did I see anything 

 resembling leadership. "The many wintered crow 

 that leads the clanging rookery home" is — a lovely 

 line. On no other occasion could I make out that 

 rooks obeyed or followed any recognised leader, and 

 I came to a similar negative conclusion in regard to 

 the question of their employment of sentinels. It 

 is asserted in various works — for instance, in the 

 latest edition of Chambers's " Encyclopedia " — that 

 they do post sentinels. I will give two instances of 

 their not doing so — as I concluded — and my experi- 

 ence was the same on other occasions, which I did 

 not think it worth while to note. 



