Food of the Rook. 115 



freckled with little tufts of dead plants of grass, of the colour 

 of hay, lying on its surface. These tufts of dead plants of 

 grass, myself, and a naturalist who was with me ; for 



" Birds of a feather will flock together," 



or join company ; agreed to refer to the digging, stocking, or 

 stubbing (the science of ornithology is well off for terms, but 

 to express the arts of birds there are not too many of fit ones) 

 of the rooks, jackdaws, and starlings, in early spring, in their 

 search after the insects which had lain in the soil near the 

 roots of these plants of grass now dead : and, doubtless, our 

 reference was accurate enough. My companion, " by far 

 whose junior " in experience as in age am I, even ascribed 

 to these birds the possession of the faculty of knowing, by the 

 aspect of plants, which those are at whose roots the grubs of 

 insects lie. 



A correspondent in the Gardener's Magazine has thus 

 spoken (ix. 718.) on the rook : — " Hunger may compel the 

 rook to feed on grain ; but it is too well known for me to say 

 any thing about it, that its favourite food is insects in the larva 

 state. I have repeatedly examined the crops of rooks. In 

 six young ones that had been shot, the crops were nearly 

 filled with wireworms ; in the crops of others I have found 

 the larvae of the cockchafer, and other grubs that I am not 

 entomologist enough to know the names of. In one or two 

 instances, in frosty weather, I have examined the crop of one 

 or more rooks that had been shot ; it contained dung, earth, 

 and a small portion of grain. I will just notice, that the 

 land adjoining Mr. Wiles's rookery is yearly sown with grain 

 or pulse, and in no instance that I have known or heard o^ has 

 the crop failed in consequence of its nearness to the rookery ; 

 [while T. D n, in his allotment in Midload, in which he 

 shoots every rook he can meet with, has his crops annually ra- 

 vaged by wireworm and ground-grubs to a vexatious extent.] 

 — J. D. sen. Waterbeach, near Cambridge, Oct. 17. 1833." 



The origin of the dung of other animals in the crop of the 

 rook, during frosts of some continuance, in winter, and the 

 corn found with it, may be referred to the pressing necessity to 

 which the bird is at these times subject : their destitute con- 

 dition, then, has been well described by Cowper : — 



" The very rooks and daws forsake the fields, 

 Where neither grub, nor root, nor earth-nut, now 

 Repays their labour more ; and, perch'd aloft 

 By the wayside, or stalking in the path, 

 Lean pensioners upon the traveller's track, 

 Pick up their nauseous dole, though sweet to them, 

 Of voided pulse or half-digested grain." 

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