18 The Rook. 

sround and on the wing. In early spring it likes to 
be near the vicinity of man, building on the tops of 
trees, generally near some town or mansion, where it 
builds its nest of sticks, tufts of dried grass, lined with 
roots. It begins to build in February, and lays four 
or five eggs. The young leave the trees where they 
were hatched, and go with the parent birds into the 
fields in search of food; as summer declines, they are 
generally accompanied by a number of starlings and 
jackdaws. In the winter they do not pass their nights 
in the trees where they were bred, but go in large 
flocks to some pine forest, where they roost in great _ 
numbers. In Woburn Park, the seat of the Duke of 
Bedford, there is a long line of pines, where thousands 
of Rooks, accompanied by daws, may be seen to take 
up their nightly quarters. It is supposed most of the 
Rooks from counties round find shelter there. 
There is an old saying, “The crow smells powder;” 
and this is often quoted by farmers when they cannot 
get near enough to shoot one of the flock of Rooks 
on their newly-sown corn. The scent of the Rook is 
very keen, but we cannot quite believe they actually 
smell a charge of powder confined in a gun when fifty 
yards away; moreover, if a stick, or anything approach- 
