_Mr. S._ It is their nature to associate together, and they build in
numbers of the same, or adjoining trees. They have no objection to the
neighbourhood of man, but readily take to a plantation of tall trees,
though it be close to a house; and this is commonly called a rookery.
They will even fix their habitations on trees in the midst of towns.

_F_. I think a rookery is a sort of town itself.

_Mr. S._ It is--a village in the air, peopled with numerous inhabitants;
and nothing can be more amusing than to view them all in motion, flying
to and fro, and busied in their several occupations. The spring is their
busiest time. Early in the year they begin to repair their nests, or
build new ones.

[Illustration: CROW.]

_F_. Do they all work together, or every one for itself?

_Mr. S._ Each pair, after they have coupled, builds its own nest; and,
instead of helping, they are very apt to steal the materials from one
another. If both birds go out at once in search of sticks, they often
find at their return the work all destroyed, and the materials carried
off. However, I have met with a story which shows that they are not
without some sense of the criminality of thieving. There was in a
rookery a lazy pair of rooks, who never went out to get sticks for
themselves, but made a practice of watching when their neighbours were
abroad, and helping themselves from their nests. They had served most of
the community in this manner, and by these means had just finished their
own nest; when all the other rooks, in a rage, fell upon them at once,