THE ROOK, 
133 
an amazing flock. Sometimes they pass on without 
stopping, and are joined by those which have spent 
the day here. At other times they make my park 
their place of rendezvous, and cover the ground in 
vast profusion, or perch upon the surrounding trees- 
After tarrying here for a certain time, every rook 
takes wing. They linger in the air for a while, in 
slow revolving circles, and then they all proceed to 
Nostell Priory, which is their last resting-place for 
the night. In their morning and evening passage, 
the loftiness or lowliness of their flight seems to be 
regulated by the state of the weather. When it 
blows a hard gale of wind, they descend the valley 
with astonishing rapidity, and just skim over the tops 
of the intervening hills, a few feet above the trees : 
but, when the sky is calm and clear, they pass 
through the heavens at a great height, in regular 
and easy flight. 
Sometimes these birds perform an evolution, which 
is, in this part of the country, usually called the 
shooting of the rooks. Farmers tell you, that this 
shooting portends a coming wind. He who pays at- 
tention to the flight of birds has, no doubt, observed 
this downward movement. When rooks have risen 
to an immense height in the air, so that, in ap- 
pearance, they are scarcely larger than the lark, they 
suddenly descend to the ground, or to the tops of 
trees exactly under them. To effect this, they come 
headlong down, on pinion a little raised, but not ex- 
panded^ in a zig-zag direction (presenting alternately 
their back and breast to you), through the resisting 
air, which causes a noise similar to that of a rushing 
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