an ancient rookery, which is one of
the most important provinces in the Squire's rural domains. The old
gentleman sets great store by his rooks, and will not suffer one of
them to be killed: in consequence of which, they have increased
amazingly; the tree-tops are loaded with their nests; they have
encroached upon the great avenue, and have even established, in times
long past, a colony among the elms and pines of the church-yard,
which, like other distant colonies, has already thrown off allegiance
to the mother country.

The rooks are looked up by the Squire as a very ancient and honourable
line of gentry, highly aristocratical in their notions, fond of place,
and attached to church and state; as their building so loftily,
keeping about churches and cathedrals, and in the venerable groves of
old castles and manor-houses, sufficiently manifests. The good opinion
thus expressed by the Squire put me upon observing more narrowly these
very respectable birds, for I confess, to my shame, I had been apt to
confound them with their cousins-german the crows, to whom, at the
first glance, they bear so great a family resemblance. Nothing, it
seems, could be more unjust or injurious than such a mistake. The
rooks and crows are, among the feathered tribes, what the Spaniards
and Portuguese are among nations, the least loving, in consequence of
their neighbourhood and similarity. The rooks are old established
housekeepers, high-minded gentlefolk, that have had their hereditary
abodes time out of mind; but as to the poor crows, they are a kind of
vagabond, predatory, gipsy race, roving about the country without any
settled home; "their hands are against every body, and every body's
against them;" and they are gibbeted in every corn-field. Master Simon
assures me that a female rook, that should so far forget herself as to
consort with a crow, would inevitably be disinherited, and indeed
would he totally discarded by all her genteel acquaintance.

The Squire is very watchful over the interests and concerns of his
sable neighbours. As to Master Simon, he even pretends to know many of
them by sight, and to have given names to them; he points out several,
which he says are old heads of families, and compares them to worthy
old citizens, beforehand in the world, that wear cocked hats, and
silver buckles in their shoes. Notwithstanding the protecting
benevolence of the Squire, and their being residents in his empire,
they seem to acknowl