80 
THE BIRDS OF HAMPSHIRE. 
Bushes in 1902, much to the astonishment of the oldest 
inhabitant. 
In the Isle of Wight none of the rookeries are of any 
size, though there are numerous small ones. 
The observation of the rooks at Selborne, particularly 
during the nesting season, greatly interested Gilbert White, 
and the first "twig-bearing rook" of the year was duly 
noted in his Diary. 
According to Jesse, the unpublished papers of White 
mention a nest with young in it on November 26th 
(Yarrell). 
In Letter xliii. to Barrington,i White wrote : "Rooks in 
the breeding season attempt sometimes, in the gaiety of 
their hearts, to sing, but with no great success." And 
again he truly describes their return to roost in autumn 2 : 
"Just before dark they return in long strings from the 
foraging of the day, and rendezvous by thousands over 
Selborne Down, where they wheel round in the air, and 
sport and dive in playful manner, all the while exerting 
their voices and making a loud cawing, which, being blended 
and softened by the distance that we at the village are 
below them, becomes a confused noise or chiding, or rather 
a pleasing murmur, very engaging to the imagination, and 
not unlike the cry of a pack of hounds in hollow, echoing 
woods, or the rushing of the wind in tall trees, or the 
tumbling of the tide upon a pebbly shore. 
" When this ceremony is over, with the last gleam of day, 
they retire for the night to the deep beechen woods of 
Tisted and Ropley." 
Among his meteorological observations he records that 
a number of rooks were caught in a lane near Hackwood 
' Selborne. September 9th, 1778. = Letter lix. to Barrington, 
