CLEVER ROOKS.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2837, 19 March 1878, Page 2

CLEVER ROOKS.

A gentleman whose perfect veracity I have never-had the slightest reason to question, tells me that tlie rooks in a large rookery near the bouse lie formally lived in >new 'Sunday us well as my dog does, frbui the sound of the church bells, and, the way in which he discovered the fact was as follows .—He foad a field of peas near both church and rookery, which the birds constantly visited (to destroy, he says, his crop.'for I must tell you that he is a thorough bird enemy). He could never get a shot at them on week days, but on Sundays he and his-family used to walk through this field to church, without disturbing a single ■ thief. " They were as bold as brass," to use his expression, and "kept pecking away at hi? peas under his nose; " so one Sunday he remained at home, and when, as he thought, all his neighbors were safe in their pews, he walked out gun in hand. The old senti> nal rook never took any notice of him, gave no warning, as he did on week days, of the approach of a foe, and \V. 8., going up to the birds, shot two, winging a third. Imagine his dismay, as he was proceeding in pursuit, to see a window open at the vicarage, and the: vicar, who had been kept at home by a severe cold that morniug, pop his head out to discover the Sabbath..breaker. The rooks, I must add, became from that day quite as canny on Sundays as they were during the week. It was the first and last shot he was able to at them in the pea-field,—W. H.; in Land and Water.