ROOKS. 
201 
lines were afterwards seen broken up, in consequence of tlie 
visits -of tbe suffering Rooks. 
We have before noticed the instinctive sagacity shown by 
Rooks, Jays, &c., in avoiding the approach of sportsmen, or 
other suspicious characters; and it would appear that they 
can, with equal discrimination, discover and attach themselves 
to friends. A clergyman, who had a small rookery near his 
house, assured us, that when he walked near or under the 
trees, they exhibited no signs of alarm ; but when a stranger 
approached, they were evidently uneasy, and manifested, by 
their loud cawings and movements, their wish for his de- 
parture. The following anecdote is a still more convincing 
proof of this instinctive faculty. 
A farmer rented a farm in the county of Essex some years 
ago, where he had not resided long, before a number of Rooks 
came and built their nests upon the trees immediately sur- 
rounding the premises, and multiplied so much in the course 
of three or four years, as to form a considerable rookery, 
which he much prized. About this time, however, he was 
induced to take a larger farm, which obliged him to change 
his residence and forsake his Rooks ; but, to his great surprise 
and pleasure, the whole rookery manifested such an attach- 
ment towards him, as led them to desert their former habita- 
tion, and accompany him to his new abode, which was about 
three-quarters of a mile off, and there they have continued 
to flourish ever since. It should be added, that this person 
was strongly attached to all animals whatsoever, and that he 
always experiences a striking return of affection even from the 
least docile of them. 
Could we dive into all the mysteries of a rookery, a page 
in the book of nature would be opened, filled with much that 
“ man’s philosophy hath never dreamed of.” Without any 
assignable cause, a party will secede from an old-established 
rookery and form a new one. A case of this sort occurred 
about ten years ago, in the parish of Alderley, in Cheshire. 
Seven pair of Rooks, supposed to have come from an old 
rookery about two miles distant, where an extent of wood 
admitted of unlimited accommodation, took up their residence 
