102 Observations on the Habits of the RooJc, 



down, on pinion a little raised, but not expanded, in a zig-zag 

 direction (presenting, alternately, their back and breast to 

 you), through the resisting air, which causes a noise similar 

 to that of a rushing wind. This is a magnificent and beau- 

 tiful sight to the eye of an ornithologist. It is idle to suppose 

 for a moment that it portends wind. It is merely the ordi- 

 nary descent of the birds to an inviting spot beneath them, 

 where, in general, some of their associates are already assem- 

 bled, or where there is food to be procured. When we 

 consider the prodigious height of the rooks at the time they 

 begin to descend, we conclude that they cannot effect their 

 arrival at a spot perpendicular under them, by any other 

 process so short and rapid. 



Rooks remain with us the year throughout. If there were 

 a deficiency of food, this would not be the case ; for, when 

 birds can no longer support themselves in the place which 

 they have chosen for their residence, they leave it, and go in 

 quest of nutriment elsewhere. Thus, for want of food, my- 

 riads of wildfowl leave the frozen north, and repair to milder 

 climates ; and in this immediate district, when there is but a 

 scanty sprinkling of seeds on the whitethorn bush, our flocks of 

 fieldfares and of redwings bear no proportion to those in 

 times of a plentiful supply of their favourite food. But the 

 number of rooks never visibly diminishes ; and on this account 

 we may safely conclude that, one way or other, they always 

 find a sufficiency of food. Now, if we bring, as a charge 

 against them, their feeding upon the industry of man, as, for 

 example, during the time of a hard frost, or at seedtime, or 

 at harvest, at which periods they will commit depredations, if 

 not narrowly watched, we ought, in justice, to put down in 

 their favour the rest of the year, when they feed entirely upon 

 insects. Should we wish to know the amount of noxious 

 insects destroyed by rooks, we have only to refer to a most 

 valuable and interesting paper on the services of the rook, 

 signed T. G. Clitheroe, Lancashire, which is given in Vol. VI. 

 p. 14'2. of this Magazine. I wish every farmer in England 

 would read it. They would then be convinced bow much the 

 rook befriends them. 



Some author (I think. Goldsmith) informs us that the 

 North American colonists got the notion into their heads that 

 the purple grakle was a great consumer of their maize [1. 47.]; 

 and these wise men of the west actually offered a reward of 

 threepence for the killed dozen of the plunderers. This 

 tempting boon soon caused the country to be thinned of 

 grakles, and then myriads of insects appeared, to put the 

 good people in mind of the former plagues of Egypt. They 



