THE ROOK 



M5 



roots have been killed by the worm instead of the hoe. A 

 thousand crows in a barley-field is no uncommon sight. 

 But if you are passing you may scare them away, but not 

 by shooting them and hanging them on a stick, as is often 

 done ; for many is the time you may see them feeding 

 quietly around such dead mates. No; you must shoot 

 your " crows," as they are called in Norfolk, and lay them 

 flat on a hillock in the field with outspread wings : that 

 will frighten others away — they think they will be trapped ; 

 and when one reaHses the vast numbers that flock over in 

 autumn, any method of scaring them is invaluable, for 

 though some of the home-bred rooks go away across the 

 seas in autumn, far greater numbers flock in to steal 

 English corn, preferring that planted on the marshlands, 

 perhaps because the rook is fond of water ; indeed in great 

 drought the rooks die like flies — they cannot live without 

 plenty of water. To game they are very destructive, sucking 

 the eggs and eating the young. 



After the rook shootings, in which the young are usually 

 thinned, in July, the whole city of young and old desert the 

 rookery and take to the marshes, and then the young birds 

 are nearly as large as their parents. It is long before they 

 feed themselves, however ; for there on the marshes you may 

 see the old birds feeding the young with their boluses of food 

 after the manner of a pigeon, but the rook is quicker in the 

 operation than the pigeon. 



When they have left the rookery, some return there nightly 

 to sleep, but the majority choose another roosting-place — 

 some place that will be warm and cosy in winter — often a 

 low car by the river or lagoon side, roosting in the low 

 trees with Kentishmen, though they differ from their neigh- 

 bour in not eating carrion. 



But the rook is a coward at heart. He behaves well when 

 stealing, and his watchman sits aloft, turning and spreading 

 his tail feathers every time he passes the caw " All's well ; " 

 but should a sudden shrill sound break through the still air, 



