134 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
to the point of the bill, and consequently, it may be 
supposed, would have been the first to suffer in the 
digging process, while those which had disappeared 
could scarcely have been removed by abrasion without 
injury to the feathers, which still existed in an untouched 
state.” 
Though naturally insect feeders, yet there are times 
when, pressed by hunger, rooks levy their contributions 
on the newly-springing corn, and in hard winters they 
will even frequent stackyards. They are very partial to 
potatoes, at least they are much addicted to digging up 
and carrying off those freshly planted, but it is chiefly 
at the time when their young are clamorous for food, 
“when there is little to earn and many to keep ;” indeed 
they often suffer greatly from want at this time of the 
year. Macgillivray doubts the assertion that the rook 
pilfers freshly-planted potato sets, but I have seen them 
do so hundreds of times. 
Though in our neighbourhood the corn is always 
tended by boys from the time of sowing until it is well 
out of the ground, in order to drive off the rooks, who 
would otherwise commit great havoc, yet I think the 
cultivators of the land have a pretty correct idea that, 
on the whole, the labours of these birds are productive 
of great benefit to the crops, and no greater destruction is 
made than of an occasional one, who, with wings extended 
by two split sticks, is placed im terrorem in the centre of 
a corn or potato field; and a very effectual scarecrow he 
makes—his constrained attitude is understood at a 
glance by his wary brethren, and they need no other 
hint. In some parts of the country the agriculturists 
are not so conversant with the habits of the rook, and I 
know that in one locality in an eastern county a large 
