232 Wild Life in a Southern County 



are quickly lost sight of. The two main divisions sail 

 towards the sunrise and towards the north star. 



They preserve their ranks for at least two miles from the 

 wood ; and then gradually first one and then another com- 

 pany falls out, and wheeling round, descends upon some 

 favourite field, till by degrees, spreading out like a fan, the 

 army melts away. In the evening, the various companies, 

 which may by that time have worked far to the right or to 

 the left, gradually move into line. By-and-by the van- 

 guard comes sweeping up, and each regiment rises from 

 the meadow or the hill, and takes its accustomed place in 

 the return journey. 



So that although if you casually observe a flock of 

 rooks in the daytime they seem to wander hither and 

 thither just as fancy leads, or as they are driven by passers- 

 by, in reality they have all their special haunts ; they 

 adhere to certain rules, and even act in concert, thousands 

 upon thousands of them at once, as if in obedience to the 

 word of command, and as if aware of the precise moment 

 at which to move. They have their laws, from which 

 there is no deviation : they are handed down unaltered 

 from generation to generation. Tradition, indeed, seems 

 to be their main guide, as it is with savage human tribes. 

 They have their particular feeding grounds ; and so you 

 may notice that, comparing ten or a dozen fields, one or 

 two will almost always be found to be frequented by rooks 

 while the rest are vacant. 



Here, for instance, is a meadow close to a farmstead — 

 what is usually called the home-field, from its proximity to 

 a house — here day after day rooks alight and spend hours 

 in it, as much at their ease as the nag or the lambs brought 

 up by hand. Another field, at a distance, which to the 

 human eye appears so much more suitable, being retired, 



