I 



Birds. 459 



cabinet of British birds belonging to the Philosophical and 

 Literary Institution of Chatham. — Stephen Hart, Subcurator 

 {of that histitutiori], Jan. 21. 1834. 



Rooks feedirig on Grain, S^c. — Sir, In reply to J. D., who 

 hints (p. 244.) that " the soil's being covered up, in summer 

 and autumn, with ground crops, may prevent access to it 

 for ground grubs and insects, and so account for the rook's 

 then feeding on grain, &c.," I would observe, that the rooks 

 feed quite as much on grain in the spring (March and April), 

 when they are not driven to that necessity by the ground 

 being covered up by crops. Neither will the excuse offered 

 be sufficient to exculpate the rooks from the charge of their 

 autumnal depredations on the corn ; for the ground is bare 

 enough at that season to afford them an opportunity to stock 

 it up in search of grubs; and, accordingly, they do then stock 

 it up, and destroy immense numbers. The real fact is, and 

 it must not be disguised, that my friends the rooks have a 

 natural taste and propensity for grain, especially when it is 

 a little swollen by having lain a few days in the ground; 

 and, accordingly, the periods at which they commit the 

 greatest depredations are just after the grain is sown (the 

 wheat in autumn, and the oats and barley in spring), and 

 before it is come up. I have known the blackbirds do me 

 much mischief in the summer and autumn, especially if the 

 season be dry, by plucking up most unceremoniously low- 

 tufted alpine plants (e. g. 6'axifraga //ypnoides, Arenaria bale- 

 arica, Sibth6rp/« europae^a, &c.), in order to get at the grubs * 



* [Those of some Curculionidae : not rarely those of the Curculio vas- 

 tator Marshaviy which, according to Curtis's Guide, is a synonyme of Otio- 

 rhynchus Ger. picipes F. It is not a little vexatious, to those who cultivate 

 plants with a passion for them, to find the tufts of AS'axifragae and other 

 plants (but more frequently the tufted 5axifragae) turned or turning to a 

 brown colour, and, at a lifting up with the hand, come clear off the soil 

 upon which they had grown, and appearing partly rootless, and in a dying 

 state. On exploring the soil below, insects in the pupa state (they have 

 wings formed, and pretty obvious) are discoverable. The larvae of these, 

 it may be presumed, had fed upon the roots of the plants. A fine plant 

 of the Crassula cordata was once kept upon a stand in the drawingroom, 

 near a window, by the late Sir Thomas Cullum, Bart. : it flourished, and 

 its branches hung tressily and prettily over the edge of the pot, and bore 

 flowers in its season. After this plant had been kept some time here, it 

 died suddenly, and, on exploring the soil, larvae or pupas of an insect were. 

 Sir Thomas informed me, discovered in it : doubtless those of one of the 

 Curculionidae. The grape vine, in forcing-houses, has its sprouting herbage 

 and embryo fruit not a little ravaged by an Otiorhjnchus. O. raucus has 

 abounded about Liverpool in the spring of this present year (1834), and 

 eaten to an unwelcome extent of the leaves of the trees and shrubs of that 

 neighbourhood. These facts aid in showing the value of the agency of 

 the black birds, however much or little they may do towards reducing the 

 numbers of the weevils.] 



