But the
greatest difference is in the way the head is carried. The
rook, like the heron and stork, carries his beak pointing
lance-like straight before him. He knows his destination, and
makes for it; he follows his nose, so to speak, turning
neither to the right nor the left. The foraging crow
continually turns his head, gull-like and harrier-like, from
side to side, as if to search the ground thoroughly or to
concentrate his vision on some vaguely seen object.
Not only the crow was there: a magpie chattered as I came from
the brake, but refused to show himself; and a little later a
jay screamed at me, as only a jay can. There are times when I
am intensely in sympathy with the feeling expressed in this
ear-splitting sound, inarticulate but human. It is at the
same time warning and execration, the startled solitary's
outburst of uncontrolled rage at the abhorred sight of a
fellow-being in his woodland haunt.
Small birds were numerous at that spot, as if for them also
its wildness and infertility had an attraction. Tits,
warblers, pipits, finches, all were busy ranging from place to
place, emitting their various notes now from the tree-tops,
then from near the ground; now close at hand, then far off;
each change in the height, distance, and position of the
singer giving the sound a different character, so that the
effect produced was one of infinite variety.
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