114 Food of the Booh 



Court Park. I am in the constant habit of walking and 

 riding under it, and have never observed any pellets, which I 

 should have done had there been any. The great extent of 

 meadows along the banks of the Thames, where rooks can 

 probably very readily procure food more congenial to their 

 nature than oats, may account for this. 



In Greenwich Park, either from the want of a rookery in 

 the neighbourhood, or from the birds being driven away, 

 owing to the park being so much frequented, 



The Ravages of the Grub of the Long-legged Gnat {Crane- 

 fiy\ (Tipula olerdcea) have been very great this Summer. — Sixty 

 grubs have been found there, under a square foot of turf, and 

 about thirty acres have been much damaged. This probably 

 would not have happened if rooks had had free access to the 

 park ; another proof of their great utility. 



I beg, in conclusion, to thank Mr. Bree for his many agree- 

 able observations in natural history which have from time 

 to time appeared in this Magazine, and which I always look 

 for with considerable eagerness. — Edward Jesse. Hampton 

 Court, Sept. 9. 1834. 



[Some number, not a very large one, of rooks and jack- 

 daws build annually upon the trees in Kensington Gardens, 

 the majority of them, perhaps, upon the trees which bound 

 the garden on the south, opposite the south front of the palace. 

 Between these trees and the palace are two nearly square 

 areas of lawn, separated by an avenue of elms which stands 

 between them, supplies a vista from the palace, and leads to 

 the boundary trees first mentioned. In sunny afternoons in 

 spring, it was a cheering sight to see these lawns, in the part 

 most distant from the walk in front of the palace and fre- 

 quented by persons passing through the garden, a scene of 

 emulous activity with the rooks and jackdaws ; they, 

 " Well clad in coats of glossy black," 



and there were starlings in a more variegated suit, were all, 

 in point of unexceptionableness of exterior, quite on a par 

 with any company in the garden, and, doubtless, 



" Every day, for food or play," 



paraded these lawns, and other parts of the garden, which, 

 it may not be amiss to tell folks in the country, though in- 

 cluding forty-six acres, consists wholly of greensward, except 

 great number of trees, some shrubs, the walks, and some 

 water. 



In about the end of July, the object and the effects of the 

 researches of these birds into the turf of the lawns was not 

 to be misunderstood : in places the green grass was quite 



