shire Natural History Journal’:—“ One of the most
curious ornithological sights to be witnessed in this
neighbourhood is a Rook’s parliament, or meeting, which
generally (though by no means invariably) takes place in
the autumn in one of three special places, about an hour
before roosting-time; in one of these spots, a meadow
close to the house at Lilford, we have seen some ten
acres so thickly occupied by Rooks, that scarcely a sign
of the grass upon which they were assembled was
discernible from rising ground at a few hundred yards’
distance, whilst great numbers were collected in the
adjoining trees, and many plunging headlong from great
heights and darting and twisting in all directions; those
upon the ground were comparatively silent, but the
occupants of the ‘ gallery,’ if I may so call the trees,
were, as is usual in assemblages of another order of
bipeds, very vociferous. We have seen many such
meetings, but never such a densely packed one as that
observed on a certain afternoon m October, and followed,
as is generally the case, by a heavy gale. Here is
another of the habits of the Rook, which has doubtless
been observed by many, but, so far as I know, never
satisfactorily accounted for or explained.”