ROOKS. 
245 
nests upon the trees immediately surrounding 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 attachment towards him, 
as led them to desert their former habitation, 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 he 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 he opened, 
filled with much that u man’s philosophy hath never 
dreamed of.” Without any assignable cause, a party 
w T ill secede from an okl-estahlished rookery and 
form a new one. A case of this sort occurred 
about five 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 in a clump 
of trees, and proceeded to build ; there they have 
continued ever since, the number of nests increasing 
as follows. In 1 828 there were seven nests ; in 
1829, nine; in 1830, thirteen ; in 1831, twenty-four ; 
in 1 832, thirty-three ; in .1 833, upwards of fifty ; 
and in this year there is a proportionate increase, 
