FAMILY MKI.OI.ONTIIin.i:. - 75 



at-urns in aiituiiiii) format all other times the whole. .(iheir suh^isteiue. Here, then, if luy 

 data he correet, there is the enormous (luantily of 18(1000 Ihs. or '209 tons oi"worms> insects 

 and their larvic, d.stroyed l.y the hirds of a single rookery ; and to every one who known 

 how verydestruetive to vegetation arc the larvseof the lril.es of insects (as well as worms) 

 fed upon by rwks, some slight idea may lie formed of the devastation which rooks are 

 the means of preventing. I have understood that in Sullolk, and in some of the southern 

 counties, the larva; (of insects allied to iMchnosfcrna] are so exceedingly al.undiinl that 

 the crops [of grain I are almost destroyed l.y them, and that their ravages do not cease even 

 when they have attained to a winged state. Various plans have been pi opo.'^ed to jut a 

 stop to their dej.redat ions ; but I have little doubt that their abnndanreis to be attributed 

 to the scarcity of rooks, as I have somewheie ?een an a.count that rooks in those counties 

 are nut numerous. 



'A llight of gnis<hopi)ers visited Craven, ami they were so numerous as to create con- 

 siderable alarm among the farmers : they were, however, soon relieved from their anxiety j 

 for the rocks flocked in from all quarters by thousands and tens of thousands, an<l .levoured 

 them so greedily that they were destroyed in a shoi-t time. 



' It was stated in a new.spaper a year or two back-, that there was such an enormoiiK 

 quantity of caterpillars upon JSkiddaw, that they devoured all the vegetation on the 

 mountain, and people were ai>prelieiisive that they would attack the crops in the cnclcscd 

 lands ; but the rooks, having discovere.i them, in a very short time put a stop to their 

 ravages. 



'An extensive experiment appears to have been made, the result of which has been the 

 opinion that farmers do wrong in destroying rooks, jays, sparrows, and indeed biids in 

 general,.on their farms, particularly where there are orchards. That birds do niischief 

 occasionally, there can be no doubt ; but the liarm they do in autumn is amply com- 

 pensated by the good they do in .spring, by the destructive havop ihov make among the 

 insect tribes. The quantity of grubs destroyed by rooks, and of caterpillars and their gnibs 

 by the various small birds, must be annually immense. Other tribes of birds, which feed 

 on the wing, as swallows and martins, destroy millions of winged insects. Even '^ome 

 usually supposed to be .so mischievous in gardens, have actually been proved only to 

 deslroy those buds which contain a destructive insect. Ornithologists have of late de- 

 termined these facts to be true ; and officers would do well to consider them, before they 

 waste (he i.ublic money in paying rewards to idle boys and girls for the heads of dead 

 birds, which only encourages children and other idle persons in the mischiev<.us employ- 

 ment of f .wling. On some very large farms in Tevonshire, the proprietors defermintd, a 

 few years ago, to try the result of ofTering a great reward f;>r the heads of rooks ■ but the 

 issue proved destructive to the farms, for nearly the whole of the crops failed for three 

 succeeding years, and thaj have .nnce bcai forced h import rooks and other birds to re-stcck 

 their forins vith.'' 



