276 BIRD WATCHING 



wards, when the same bird has the morsel on the 

 ground in good pick-axeing position, a second rook 

 advances upon him with a quick, sideway hop, looking 

 cunning, sardonic, diabolic, and much for which words 

 seem totally wanting. But this attack, though swift 

 and vigorous, is not more successful than the former 

 one. The lucky rook gets off with his booty, and 

 has soon swallowed it. Amongst rooks, the finding 

 of anything by any one of them is a recognised cause 

 of attack by any other. This is taken as a matter of 

 course by the bird attacked, and if he holds (and 

 swallows) his own, which, as he has a clear advantage, 

 he generally does, no resentment is manifested by 

 him — there is not even a slight coolness after the 

 incident is over. If, however, the attack should be 

 successful, then it is very different. The annoyance 

 is too great for the robbed bird, and he becomes very 

 warm indeed. He makes persistent violent rushes 

 after the robber, is most pertinacious, and clearly 

 shows that kind of exasperation which would be felt 

 by a man under similar circumstances. It seems not 

 so much his own loss, as the success and triumphant 

 bearing of the other bird, that upsets him. He has 

 failed where he ought to have been successful, and of 

 this he seems conscious. 



"When one rook makes his spring into the air 

 at another, this one will sometimes duck down in- 

 stead of also springing. The springer, then, like 

 'vaulting ambition,' 'o'erleaps himself and falls on 

 the other side.' I have just seen this. The rook 

 that bobbed seemed to have scored a point, and 

 to know it, which the other one confessed shame- 

 facedly — no, indescribably, a rook cannot look shame- 



