164 The Scottish Naturalist. 



and earth-worms. Wire-worms, spiders, and all the beetle tribe, 

 together with their larvae and eggs, are ever being hunted after by 

 those birds. When grain is in plenty in the fields it is almost 

 never touched, provided a supply of the grubs indicated is to be 

 had ; and in summer and autumn grubs as a rule are always to be 

 had in fair abundance, unless in places where rooks are so very 

 numerous as to prove a pest. Observing husbandmen have long 

 known that rooks do a vast amount of good by hunting up and 

 devouring the many kinds of grubs that infest the land and destroy 

 its produce ; but they are, of course, also aware that where the 

 birds are excessively numerous, they prey at times heavily on the 

 valuable produce of the land. They must of necessity eat ; and 

 when, in such large numbers, they find the supply of their 

 favourite food short, they will in such circumstances prey on any- 

 thing edible. In the cold, dry, early spring weather, they prey to 

 some extent on grain when it is being sown, and farmers occa- 

 sionally express a good-humoured wish that some neighbour would 

 begin to " sow first and feed the crows." After grain is in the 

 seed-bed it is seldom preyed on by rooks, and when they are 

 seen feeding in thick black clusters on parts of newly-sown or 

 sprouted corn-fields, it is almost always grubs they are assembled 

 to devour ; and almost any farmer can testify that the spots of* 

 which he may have seen rooks thus clustered after the grain has 

 been sown for a time bear as good a crop as the other parts of the 

 field. Indeed, in an immoderately dry season, when from want 

 of surface-moisture earth-worms remain underground, and slugs 

 and grubs are scarcely procurable even in small numbers, they do 

 not attack to an extent worthy of notice either grain recently 

 sown or grain in the ear. But in severe winters and in early 

 spring they do much damage in stackyards here and there. Ire 

 autumn they peculate now and then from the stooks, but very 

 moderately. I have shot rooks on several occasions when feed- 

 ing in stubble fields where grain was abundant, and when opened,, 

 have seldom found more than a few grains in the stomach, and I 

 as often found none ; but there was generally present a consider- 

 able mash of beetles, small earth-worms, hoglice, and larvae of 

 various insects. 



" Rooks are a pest in the potato field when the crop is young. 

 They then, especially in dry summers, dig up the seed-tubers, and 

 thereby do much damage, and on that account a crow-herd is 

 often necessary. Many people, however, mistakenly think that 

 rooks dig up the seed-potatoes in order to eat them. They seldom 



