90 KOTES ON THE ROOK. 



and that their destruction was regular and systematic, which may be fairly 

 drawn from the following entry, among certain others, concerning the parish 

 of Alderley, in Cheshire, in lo98, the fourteenth year of good Queen Bess's 

 reign: — ''We find there is no Crow-nest in the parish o payne, that one be 

 bought by the charge of the parish." It is true that we are authorized and 

 justified in diminishing such creatures as are found to be injurious to our 

 property, yet under this head we are daily committing so many serious mistakes 

 from want of a proper knowledge of their habits, that ere long some of the 

 most useful and interesting inhabitants of our woods and fields will be 

 extirpated. It is true that the Rook eats grain, walnuts, and potatoes, but 

 they are neccessaries of life to which he never resorts except when his supply 

 of animal food is shortened. After the grain has germinated, he has nothing 

 more to do with it, except in scratching it up in search of insects, which 

 are hidden from the human eye; yet while engaged in this very important 

 operation, the husbandman, in nine cases out of ten, drives him away, or 

 deals death and destruction around him. 



Many of us are well satisfied of the usefulness of these interesting and 

 useful co-labourers, whilst others are not aware of their value; for the benefit 

 of such, I shall endeavour in these notes to give some interesting remarks; 

 and the husbandman who values an abundant harvest will, I hope, extend 

 his protection to these feathered artizans, which they so richly merit. To 

 those who may be inclined to doubt these remarks, let them compare the 

 orchards, fields, and gardens where the destruction of birds is to any extent 

 tolerated, with those where they are unmolested, and they will find that in 

 the absence of their persecuted friends, their fruits and grain are in the 

 jaws of a far more deadly enemy, which they can neither shoot nor trap. 

 Kalin has remarked that, after a great destruction amongst birds in the Northern 

 States of Ameinca, for the paltry reward of three pence per dozen, in the 

 year 1749, they experienced a complete loss in their grain and grass cix>ps; 

 and the celebrated Wilson justly remarks in respect to the Blackbird, (Turdus 

 ^nerula,) that the good should be balanced against the damage they have 

 done; the service they render the husbandman in spring is immense, by 

 destroying millions of insects and their larvae, which they devour as their 

 natural food. 



But to our subject, the Rook. Natural instinct seems to direct the Rook 

 to this species of food, namely insects, while man is unconscious of the circum- 

 stance: thus we often see flocks of these birds busily engaged in our parks, 

 meadows, and other grass lands, picking up food, which, upon inspection, is 

 not visible on the surface. From many and attentive observations, I assert, 

 and that without fear of contradiction by those acquainted with their habits, 

 that their employment in such cases is in perforating the surface with 

 their bills, which are well adapted for the purpose, in search of the larvae 

 of those insects which are at the same time busily engaged in devouring 

 the roots of the herbage. By some husbandmen, however^ they are regularly 



