ROOK. 541 



of some antique mansion, where for ages, perhaps, their race 

 has fixed its abode. During long droughts they experience 

 great difficulty in procuring subsistence, at least in districts 

 where there is not a diversity of soil and a variety of scenery, 

 although in most parts of Scotland they have a choice of ground 

 which renders them less liable to be seriously incommoded by 

 extremes of weather. " In a hot day," says the author of the 

 Journal of a Naturalist, " we see the poor birds perambulating 

 the fields, and wandering by the sides of the highways, seeking 

 for and feeding upon grasshoppers, or any casual nourishment 

 that may be found. At those times, was it not for its break- 

 fast of dew- worms, w^hich it catches in the grey of the morning, 

 as it is appointed the earliest of risers, it would commonly be 

 famished. In the hot summer of 1825, many of the young 

 brood of the season perished for want ; the mornings were 

 without dew, and consequently few or no worms were to be 

 obtained ; and we found them dead under the trees, having 

 expired on their roostings. It was particularly distressing, for 

 no relief could be given, to hear the constant clamour and im- 

 portunity of the young for food. The old birds seemed to suf- 

 fer without complaint ; but the wants of their offspring were 

 expressed by the unceasing cry of hunger, and pursuit of their 

 parents for supply, and our fields were scenes of daily restless- 

 ness and lament. Yet, amid all this distress, it was pleasing 

 to observe the perseverance of the old ])irds in the endeavour to 

 relieve their famishing families, as many of them remained out 

 searching for food quite in the dusk, and returned to their 

 roosts long after the usual period for retiring. In this extre- 

 mity it becomes a plunderer, to which by inclination it is not 

 much addicted, and resorts to our newly-set potatoe fields, dig- 

 ging out the cuttings. Ranks are seen sadly defective, the 

 result of its labours, I fear." The failures in the potatoe 

 crops have of late years excited much attention, one conse- 

 quence of which has been that the Rooks have been completely 

 exonerated of the charge of digging up the sets, which have 

 always been found in the ground, shrivelled, putrid, or de- 

 voured by worms. Most of the circumstances connected with 

 this failure have been pointed out ; but the farmers are deter- 



