1891.  Scotland.
Sept 6
Edinburgh. - Clear most of the day with a single heavy
shower early in the afternoon.
  At 4 P.M. started on a drive about the city
and up over the great hill or small mountain
called Arthur's Seat. There was a high wind blowing 
and I was much interested in watching the
beautiful evolutions of the Rooks flying about the
top and upper slopes of the mountain. They are
much more graceful than our Crows and seem
to delight in soaring and circling high in the air
over woods or hilltops sporting with the fiercest
gusts of wind and playing with one another.
They are singularly silent birds, considering the
family to which they belong. Indeed I do not 
hear a sound from one of them once in three
weeks although I see hundreds daily. When
assembled in large numbers at the coast they
can, however, make noise enough at times.
Although singularly like our Crow in general
appearance as well as flight, attitudes and
motions when walking or feeding, they are much 
less interesting, partly, probably, because they are
so excessively numerous everywhere but chiefly,
I fancy, because they lack much of the shy,
restless, mischievous disposition of our bird.
  During this drive I also saw a number of
Hooded gulls flying about a small, muddy pond
near the base of the mountain, occasionally 
rising high in air and joining the Rooks.
there is evidently a strong bond of friendship
between these species.