We have a little story of how some rooks paid a pretty compliment to
an Empress. The preceding tenant of the Empress Eugénie's place at
Farnborough is said to have spent hundreds of pounds in a vain attempt
to induce rooks to build in the trees. Old brooms were hoisted--real
rooks' nests, with and without eggs, were fixed in the most tempting
sites among the tree-tops--young rooks were procured and given every
attention--and some were even hatched and reared artificially. But the
rooks refused to colonise. Then came the Empress; and promptly the
rooks came also. Soon a flourishing rookery was established. Perhaps
the new-comers, too, were exiles.
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