204 ON VARIOUS PAIITS 



they lay, the cocks begin to feed the hens, 

 who receive their bounty with a fondling 

 tremulous voice and fluttering wings, and 

 all the little blandishments that are ex- 

 pressed by the young, while in a helpless 

 state. This gallant deportment of the 

 male is continued through the whole sea- 

 son of incubation. These birds do not 

 copulate on trees, nor in their nests, but 

 on the ground in the open fields. White. 



After the first brood of rooks are suffi- 

 ciently fledged, they all leave their nest- 

 trees in the day-time, and resort to some 

 distant place in search of food, but return 

 regularly every evening, in vast flights, to 

 their nest-trees, where, after flying round 

 several times with much noise and clamour, 

 till they are all assembled together, they 

 take up their abode for the night. 



Markwick. 



