[To VIZ EDITOR 01 THE "SPECTATOR:7 SIR,—The following account of
some mancenvres of an army of rooks in Normandy, may be of interest to some of your readers. Early in this month I was passing along the valley of the river Eure, in Normandy, when I stopped to watch the proceedings of these rooks, which were assembling in large quantities on the low hills on the left side of the little river- valley. As the rooks flew in from all sides to this rendezvous, they settled down on the hill-side in six separate bodies or regiments, each regiment being separated from those on either side of it, by a distance of some fifty to a hundred yards. In this position they remained, till apparently all the rooks had arrived. When the last late-comers had settled down, how- ever, a band of ten or twelve flew up from the first regiment,— that is to say, the one which had taken up its position nearest the spot where I was standing, and which was on the extreme right of the line. This body then flew away in the direction away from the river,—presumably to search the country for other stragglers, for in a few minutes they returned, their number increased to seventeen or so. No sooner had these last settled down, than a single rook got up from the first regiment, and started to fly down the line, causing an immense clamour of cawing as he went; having reached the farther end, the sixth regiment—as I must call it, for want of a better term—the sixth regiment rose into the air as one rook, and flew down into the valley, to settle in the trees forming an avenue on each side of the river. The aide- de-camp rook then commenced his flight back along the line, and as he repassed, each of the remaining regiments, one after another, rose separately into the air, and flew down to the trees by the river, where they all settled down for the
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