Bird Notes and News 



11 



edict on the subject it wisely takes occasion 

 to add, not that an excessive number of 

 Rooks are too many, but : 



" The wholesale destruction of Rooks, hpwever, 

 is not advocated, having regard to the undoubted 

 advantage which farmers derive from a limited 

 number of the birds." 



Mr. Francis Darwin writes from Arthington 

 to the Leeds Mercury, under date June 5th, 

 1918 : 



" We are having here a great number of cater- 

 pillars, and they are eating all the leaves on the 

 trees and hedges. The Rooks are very busy 

 eating them, but the destruction of these birds, 

 in answer to a not very true complaint, has 

 seriously diminished their number." 



The Duke of Montrose writes to the 

 Times (May 27th, 1918) from Buchanan 

 Castle : 



" The reports of partial failure of com crops, 

 due to attack.^ by wireworms, which continue to be 

 received by the Food Production Department, and 

 reproduced by you, have induced me to ask you to 

 trive pubHcity to the following experiments. These, 

 I think, may suggest a remedy for the attacks of 

 these pests. 



" Last year I was approached by the Farmers' 

 Union for the purpose of exterminating the Rooks 

 on my estate. To this I would not agree, bearing 

 in mind one instance which came to my knowledge 

 where a rookery had been destroyed, with the 

 result that on the land around it wireworm and 

 other grubs had immediately become prevalent. 

 I set to work, however, to destroy a certain niunber 

 of Rooks at various dates and examined their 

 gizzards, with the following results : — Of Rooks 

 kiUed between April 1st and May 31st, 30 gizzards 

 were examined : 20 contained worms and grubs 

 alone ; six gizzards only contained grains of oats, 

 combined with other matter ; one gizzard con- 

 tained beetles and worms ; and one gizzard horse 

 manure and road grit. Owing to the cold and dry 

 season, the ravages of wireworm in this district 

 have been particularly severe ; but the crops in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of the rookery have 

 remained immune. On one of the fields most 

 injured by wireworm in this district I noticed 

 several Rooks busy feeding. Had they been 

 examined, I am confident that their gizzards 

 would have contained worms and beetles, and not 

 grains of corn. 



" I suggest, therefore, that the lesson to be learnt 

 is to employ moderation in the extermination of 

 Rooks and other birds, and to check the inclination 

 of the present day to destroy every bird that flies 

 as an enemy of the Food Controller." 



" A. M. D." writes from Sussex to the 

 same journal (May 28th) : 



" In this neighbourhood several fields of wheat 

 have had to be ploughed up in consequence of the 

 ravages of wireworms. I asked a shrewd old 

 labourer what he thought was the cause of this, and 

 his reply was as follows : — ' In the old days, when 

 we ploughed with horses, the Rooks had time to 

 get the wireworms : now, with steam tackle, they 

 plough one day and sow the next, and the birds 

 have no chance to do their work of destroying 

 thepe insect pests.' " 



WOOD-PIGEONS AND CATERPILLARS. 



The great caterpillar plague has afforded 

 an opportunity to a bird even more abused 

 than the Rook, and not usually credited 

 with eating insects. Mr. R. de Uphaugh 

 writes from Kent : 



" In the House of Conunons yesterday (June 7th), 

 a question was asked with regard to the damage 

 to oak woods in Kent and Sussex by caterpillars. 

 Only this week I noticed that the oak trees in some 

 of my woods were almost completely denuded of 

 leaves by them, so out of curiosity I gave in- 

 structions for a Wood-Pigeon in one of those woods 

 to be shot and its crop examined. It was found 

 to be fuU of these caterpillars and nothing else." 



Mr. H. M. Upcher, of Sheringham Hall, 

 Norfolk, supports this statement, writing 

 to the Times (June 14th) : 



" Most of my oak trees are in the same denuded 

 state, but, like him I have a friend in the ^\ ood- 

 Pigeons, as I have found the crops of some lately 

 killed quite full of the horrid green caterpillars 

 which were doing the miscliief." 



The Antler-moth caterpillar is stated to 

 have reappeared in Yorkshire, Derbyshire 

 and elsewhere in even greater strength than 

 last year, not only destroying the pasturage 

 but attacldng trees and bushes and defolia- 

 ting them. Drastic remedies, such as the 

 paraffining and burning of fields, have not 

 proved effectual. Farmers and gamekeepers 

 at Skipton are emphatic as to the need of 

 protecting the Gulls ; it is a grazing district 

 of great importance, birds are iew, and 

 caterpillars are denuding the moors and 

 meadows. 



" Shortage of fruit crops brought about 

 to some extent by indiscriminate slaughter 

 of pest-destrojdng birds, will in all pro- 

 babUity," the Ministry of Food states, 

 " necessitate the rationing of jam." — Daily 

 Telegraph, June 12th. 



