"Avicide " A curious tale is told me by a
correspondent, who has made a special study of such incidents, of what may be called avicide among birds themselves : " Among a consignment of turkeys received from Ireland one bird was found to be slightly injured in the neck. On the birds being released the company of hale turkeys turned with one accord against the wounded member, which was saved from death only by the intervention of the farmer. The wounds were bandaged ; but the invalid had to be segregated altogether. Its enemies tried even to pick off the bandages when it returned to the flock." The subject of rooks holding " courts of justice " is an old one that has been lately revived on new evidence. The most plausible explanation to my view is that the senses, probably the sense of smell, are offended by some malady or injury in the victim, though the " sceptred myth " about rooks and storks attributes the judges' verdict to a moral or at least social sense.
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