ROOK. 545 



the ground, their only sure resource is the sea-shore. On such 

 occasions they sometimes ahght on the corn-stacks and in the 

 farm-yards, becoming bold from necessity. In a very severe 

 winter, when the snow lay six weeks, and the Rock Pigeons 

 and Woodcocks were found dead in the pastures, I have seen 

 Rooks in great flocks visiting the Outer Hebrides, where none 

 ever breed. During the hea\^ snow in the end of 1836, I 

 observed that in the inland parts of Mid-Lothian, and in the 

 county of Peebles, they resorted chiefly to the stack-yards, 

 where they committed serious depredation by pulling out the 

 straws to get at the grain. 



Before proceeding with my own observations, I may here in- 

 troduce some notes for which I am indebted to Mr. Weir : — 

 " Whether Rooks are more beneficial or prejudicial to mankind, 

 is a matter of dispute. If they are destructive to the corn dur- 

 ing harvest, they are undoubtedly of great use to the farmer 

 during the months of spring, by destroying a vast quantity of 

 grubs, which, in some seasons, are exceedingly hurtful to the 

 tender shoots. By these little voracious insects I have seen 

 many an acre of excellent oats, which to their owner held out 

 the fairest prospect of an abundant crop, rendered wholly unfit 

 for use. It is a fact, not generally known, that the Rooks de- 

 stroy a great many of the young and eggs of difterent birds. 

 Both this year and the last I have caught several of them in 

 my rat traps, in the very act of carrying off the eggs which I 

 had there placed as a bait for the carrion crows and magpies. 



" The distance to which they fly almost every day to procure 

 their food, is astonishingly great. The Rooks from Kirklis- 

 ton have, during most part of this winter, flown every morning 

 to the neighbourhood of Sliotts, a distance of at least twenty 

 miles, and returned late in the afternoon to their place of abode. 

 They are excellent, I may say unerring, prognosticators of a 

 change of the weather. If they fly back to their roost in the 

 forenoon, or early in the afternoon, a storm of snow or rain 

 takes place in the evening, or on the following day. 



" In the rookery at Balbardie, several varieties of Rooks have 

 occasionally been seen. Last season there was a young one of 

 a pure white colour, but whether it was shot by some sports- 



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