Fairies, Folklore and Forteana

SIMON YOUNG FILES A NEW REPORT FROM THE INTERFACE OF STRANGE PHENOMENA AND FOLK BELIEF

ABANDONED ROOKERIES

“The rookery abandoned? Why there’ll be a death in that family before too long!” For generations it has been believed in Britain that rooks leaving their nests portend a death in the family of the garden or grounds where they live: rooks are social birds that often nest in their thousands. I’ve been gathering together examples of specific instances of such deaths. Here is one from the 1870s: “A naturalist… states that a medical gentleman of his acquaintance being in attendance upon a lady during her last illness, someone observing that she had not long to live, said to him, ‘I wonder whether the rooks will leave the rookery on this occasion? They did so on the decease of the late ____ (the former possessor), and likewise on that of his brother who preceded him.’ The birds in the present instance did quit the house, but 36 hours before the death.”

Many of these instances are rather unconvincing or are based on anecdotal material. For instance, the writer above quoting a naturalist quoting a doctor makes this a third-hand story at best. In a 1903 account from Hampshire the rooks abandoned their broods just before Lady Ashburton died: only a routine look at the newspapers from that year shows that Lady Ashburton died several hundred miles away before the nesting season began! There are also, though,

IN A 1903 ACCOUNT THE ROOKS ABANDONED THEIR BROODS JUST BEFORE LADY ASHBURTON DIED

more convincing-sounding accounts. Take this from 1905: “A case of the kind came under my observation at Heworth, York, last season, when the old-time village rookery was suddenly vacated without any apparent cause. Shortly afterwards there died the little ‘heiress’ of the house under whose aegis the rook colony had prospered; and Mr Crombie, the governor of Elmfield Cottage, to whose trees the same rooks were traced also died about the same time.” Coincidence? Probably. What about this one from 1926? “A friend of mine lived in a house… At the back of the house were a number of trees in which the rooks built their nests regularly during the first six years. On the seventh year no nests were built. The following winter my friend’s daughter died. In the eighth year, and during the five succeeding years, the rooks returned and built regularly. On the 13th year they again deserted and during that year my friend’s wife died. The rooks returned the following year and continued to build for three years, when they again deserted. That year my friend died.”

Is there any non-supernatural reason for such abandonments? One explanation given in the Victorian and Edwardian period was that the birds could smell death! The dying man, woman or child gave off an odour that the rooks found unpleasant.