IL] THE HISTORY OF A ROOK. 83

 

of safety, uttering a faint caw of complaint and alarm.
But before she reached the nest, another bullet, speed-
ing on its deadly errand, struck the bough imme-
diately beneath her, lacerated her right foot, and gave
a shock to her nervous system from which she never
afterwards entirely recovered. Happily, however, she
succeeded in scrambling over the sticks and twigs of
which our home was composed, and nestled down by
my side in a state of alarm and agitation such as I
have seldom or ever witnessed in a female rook.

Fortunately for us, there were so many of our
species sitting out upon the different trees of the
rookery, that the sportsman (if such a term can be
rightly applied to a cruel rook-killing monster) found
plenty of amusement without troubling us again, and
we crouched down without further molestation during
the rest of his stay, though our blood ran cold, and
our hearts beat faster, at every sound of his horrible
gun. But as all things in this world come to an end,
so did this attack upon our peaceful homes, and our
enemies at length retired, laden with the carcasses of
our unhappy relatives. I could not imagine at that
time the purpose for which the remains of our friends
were thus carried off. But a singular conversation
which I shortly afterwards overheard disclosed to
me the horrid truth, whilst at the same time it
afforded a notable example of the cringing and
sycophantic nature of the human race.

Not many days after the occurrence which I have
just related, a number of fiends in the shape of men,
armed, not with pea-rifles, but with ordinary shot-

guns, appeared in our luckless rookery, and opened a
G2