ZOOLOGY. 



ON THE POOD OP BOOKS. 

 By JAMES SMAIL, Kirkcaldy. 



;[This paper is part of an article by Mr. Smail on " Rooks and 

 Rookeries" in the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club, Vol. X., 159-184. The extract here printed is from 

 pp. I74-I7 8 -] 



MR. SMAIL sent circulars to 200 correspondents in the 

 district about Berwick, many of them members of the 

 Club, others landlords, farmers, and gamekeepers, and received 

 numerous replies. Query 6 in his schedule was as follows : — 

 " What kind of food do rooks eat ? State particularly whether in 

 your neighbourhood you know them to eat bulbs of turnips or 

 clover, and whether you know of their preying on the eggs or the 

 young of partridges, pheasants, or other birds. State also whether 

 you have known them to injure young lambs." 



He goes on (p. 175) : — 



" I have received such copious replies to this, and nearly all of 

 them made from personal observations by the writers, that a small 

 volume could be filled by them. I must of necessity abridge 

 largely. At the same time I shall state facts sufficient to show 

 beyond all question the kinds of food on which rooks chiefly live, 

 and also the different sorts of food on which they occasionally feed 

 at certain seasons of the year, and in certain states of the weather. 



" Gesner writes of the rook as a corn-eating bird ; and Mr. 

 Knapp, in his delightful work, 'The Journal of a Naturalist,' 

 speaks of it as a grub or worm-devouring bird, and most writers 

 •consider it a bird that partakes of both grain and grubs. 



" My opinion, formed from observations extending over a great 

 number of years, with excellent opportunities for watching their 

 ways, is that rooks are omnivorous, but that they prefer as food 

 before all grain or vegetable matter grubs of all kinds, and slugs 



