THE ROOK 143 



pouches, that makes their voices so hoarse that you can ever 

 tell by his caw who has brought back a good bagful of pro- 

 vender and who has not ; and you can see their distended 

 throats, moreover. As soon as the father of a family enters 

 his tree, his wife flies to meet liim — nor does she always 

 wait till he comes into their tree — and takes the food from 

 him. You may see them doing this on the wing, but it is 

 generally done on a stout branch. Then there is such a 

 noise and cawing as the young birds are fed in turn, their 

 mouths wide open, and their necks outstretched, and their 

 wings flapping, as do the wings of the rooster. Turn by 

 turn she feeds the voracious youngsters. When you are 

 tired of watching them, and arise from your cold bed in the 

 ditch, the signalman caws, and away go the elders cawing 

 and calling, flying over the rookery, and shaling round, 

 whilst the youngsters join in the vulgar din, which is kept 

 up until you get far away from the rookery. 



It is at this season of the year that the rook does so much 

 harm to the farmer, for though, like most birds, he does 

 good too, his harm far outbalances his goodness, and far- 

 mers would be better without rooks, notwithstanding the 

 " bird-lover's " statement to the contrary. 



Let us briefly try to balance the matter, and see whether 

 the farmer be on the debtor or creditor side, to say nothing 

 of the game preserver. 



Taking him all the year through, his staple foods are, in 

 this district, grubs, worms, wire-worms, beetles (from horse- 

 dung), frogs, eggs, young birds, corn, turnips, mangolds, 

 potatoes, and barley, besides food found by the shore, and 

 bilberries in heathy districts. 



When he follows the plough in early spring with the 

 lapwings and black-headed gulls (not grey gulls, as the 

 superficial poet puts it, for they never follow the plough 

 to my knowledge), he undoubtedly does some good in- 

 eating grubs and wire-worms. His eating earth-worms 

 does no good to the farmer, neither does his consumption of 



