NOTES ot; thr nooK. ^ 



permitted to accompany the ploughman, and collect the various insects which 

 the operations of ploughing and harrowing bring to the surface, and of which 

 they devour more than of the grain which is scattered around them: this is 

 easily ascertained, and that by dissection. I do not mean to assert that their 

 crops will be found void of grain; on the contrary; but what grain therein 

 may be found would not be the tenth of what would have been consumed 

 by the insects which the Rook devours in their several stages. 



As soon as the operation of seed-time is over, and no insects are to be 

 found in the arable districts, the Rooks migrate, taking with them their 

 young, spending most of the summer months on heaths, moors, and high 

 down lands, where they are scantily supplied with the fruit of Vaccinium 

 myrtillus, V. Vitis-idcm, and some few others, as well as with several species 

 of Helix and Limax, and various insects. Towards the end of harvest they 

 return to us, visiting again our stubble, potato, and turnip-fields, at which time 

 they attack the insect world in their imago or perfect state, before they 

 have had time to deposit their eggs; the larvae are also diligently searched 

 for; yet for all this close attention and valuable assistance to the husbandman, 

 they are gi'eatly persecuted; to such I would say, bear the following beautiful 

 lines in mind: — 



"Take not away the life yoix cannot give, 

 For all tilings have an equal right to Uve." 



Dkyden. 



..Vgain, the sole employment of the Rook in the spring months is in search 

 of insect food, and a small gi-ay slug which in some seasons is found abundantly 

 on the young blades of grass and autumnal-sown grain, as wheat and rye; 

 and the havoc that a flock makes at this season of the year is of the 

 utmost benefit to mankind, for each insect destroyed is the means of ridding 

 our crops of thousands. An American journal says that every Rook requires 

 at least one pound of food per week, and nine- tenths of their food consists 

 of worms and insects. One hundred Rooks then, in one season, destroy four 

 thousand seven hundred and eighty pounds of worms, insects, and their larvas. 

 In a number of the ^^Sussex Express" for 1844, the following fiict in favour 

 of the Rook is stated: — "On Thursday last, a great number of old Rooks 

 were destroyed on the estate of William Oliver, Esq., when one old bird 

 was killed having in its crop nineteen grub-worms and seventeen wire-worms." 

 A correspondent of the ^^Agricultural Gazette" for 1846, says, "If Rooks 

 are as mischievous as your correspondent asserts, how is it at harvest-time 

 we have anything left in the neighbourhood? Whilst I write, hundreds of 

 Rooks are being constantly fed by the old ones almost within gun-shot of 

 the table at which I sit. What are these young ones fed with? I have 

 no ripe corn, no potatoes; what are they fed with? They are fed with 

 countless thousands of grubs, picked out of the earth by these invaluable birds." 



Another correspondent of the same journal for 1844, says, ^'In the neigh- 

 bourhood of my native plaee is a rookery, in which it is estimated that 



