11.] . THE HISTORY OF A ROOK. IoT

 

hand is zever to be trusted. He may be of a naturally
cruel disposition and fond of killing for killing’s sake ;
he may be ignorant of the nature and character of
rooks ; he may be short-sighted, and mistake a rook,
flying in the sun, for a pigeon; he may be in want
of a bird to serve as a scarecrow, or indeed, even
if none of these things chance to be the case, he may
bea good shot, fond of showing his skill, and if a rook
or any other bird comes over him as a somewhat
difficult shot, he may fire upon it, in no particularly
cruel spirit, but just to try his skill, to ‘keep his hand
in,’ and to prove his prowess, without once casting a
thought to the pain and misery he may thus inflict
upon an innocent and friendly bird.

One of my dearest friends fell a victim toa sports-
man of this kind. He was returning home, I sup-
pose, from some shooting excursion, on a windy day,
and at the corner of an avenue of trees, a number of
rooks, among whom was my lamented Glossy-back,
whirled high in the air above his head with no suspicion
of evil for a moment. The man was, I suppose,
struck with the eccentric nature of their flight, and
the difficulty which it would present to an unskilful
sportsman, and desirous of indicating his own reputa-
tion (which nobody had attacked) fired right and left
at the poor birds without the slightest provocation,
and my poor Glossy-back and another fell wounded
to the ground. The hard-hearted monster who had per-
formed this barbarous deed merely smiled a self-satis-
fied smile at his success, and then walked calmly home-
wards without bestowing another look or thought upon
his unhappy victims. I happened myself to be among