CHAPTER VI. 



ROOKS AND CROWS. 



An unobservant person might perhaps go through the 

 month of February without noticing much activity amongst 

 the black-coated fraternity on his nearest trees, but he could 

 not fail to see that, with March, the rooks had given up their 

 regular morning and evening migration to and from the fields, 

 and had busied themselves with house-building. April finds 

 their nests clamorous with young, and, from the first streaks 

 of auroral light to the last touches of the dying day, parent 

 birds know hardly a minute's rest. Then comes the most in- 

 teresting work of all, the schooling of the young birds in the 

 art of flight. It does not take long, but is brimful of excite- 

 ment whilst it lasts. One might almost declare that there is 

 little less of human than of avian interest in it, for nobody 

 who has ever taught children to swim, and has watched the 

 efforts of old rooks with their new-fledged offspring, can fail 

 to see that the methods, the encouragement, the incentives, 

 and the gentle pushings on the one side are as characteristic 

 of the teacher in each case as are the dread, the doubt, and 

 the hanging back on the part of the taught. The "Oh, I shall 

 be drowned!" is no more distinct on the part of the timid boy 

 than is the "I can't: I shall fall," on that of the young rook. 

 Then comes a chorus of praise and delight when a few suc- 

 cessful strokes have been taken, followed by a dawning of con- 

 fidence on the part of the neophyte, soon to be confirmed so 

 strongly that the period of teaching is soon at an end. Then 

 are seen those glorious collective lessons when parents and 

 young set forth together to learn how to perform manoeuvres 

 in the air which put all human military movements in the 

 shade by their intricacy, their picturesqueness, and their pre- 

 cision, and the "freewheeling" part of which some of the crow 

 family are capable. Following this, Corvus Sinensis, the 

 common rook of China, appears to take a summer holiday. 

 The whole family disappears from its usual haunts and re- 

 mains away usually till late in August. Then come re-unions 

 once more. Flocks of hundreds at a time may be seen on 

 the Racecourse in Shanghai, and it is my belief that even so 

 early in their career the young ones have begun to come to 

 a sort of mutual understanding. Engagements are not as 



