BIRDS. 221 
turned and built their nest every year on the same place, 
till 1793, soon after which year, the spire was taken 
down. A small copperplate was engraved, of the size of 
a watch-paper, with a representation of the spire and 
the nest ; and so much pleased were the inhabitants and 
other persons with it, that as many copies were sold as 
produced to the engraver a profit of ten pounds. The 
wood-cut by Bewick, in the title-page to his Select 
Fables, gives a view of the old Exchange, with the Rook's 
nest on the vane. 
It is amusing to see Rooks coming at sunset, as thick 
as a clond, hovering overa grove, and, after several eddies 
described in the air, and incessant cawings, each repair- 
ing to his own nest, and settling in a few minutes to rest, 
till the dawn calls them up again to their pasture in the 
neighbouring fields. 
Dr. Darwin has remarked, that an instinctive feeling 
of danger from mankind is much more apparent in Rooks 
than in most other birds. Any one who has in the least 
attended to them will see that they evidently distinguish 
that the danger is greater when a man is armed with a 
gun, than when he has no weapon with him. In the 
spring of the year, if a person happen to walk under a 
rookery with a gun in his hand, the inhabitants of the 
trees rise on their wings, and scream to the unfledged 
young to shrink into their nests from the sight of the 
enemy. The country people observing this circumstance 
so uniformly to occur, assert that Rooks can smell gun- 
powder. 
