1 24 The Rook. [Sess. 



The same remarks may be said to apply to those occa- 

 sional descents which are made upon newly singled turnip- 

 fields in dry weather by rooks. While, as I have pointed 

 out, they render immense service to agriculturists in picking 

 up wire-worms and grubs, which are so destructive to plants, 

 it is nevertheless true that in certain seasons they are respon- 

 sible for a very considerable amount of mischief. When 

 potatoes are appearing through the ground, they dig down 

 for the seed, which they rarely fail to carry off, and in con- 

 sequence numerous blanks are visible when the crop grows 

 up, unless vigilance is practised by " herding " them. In the 

 plundering of potato-fields, rooks display a more than ordi- 

 nary degree of sagacity in their mode of getting at the early 

 potatoes. Instead of digging down along the side of the 

 plant from the top of the ridge, they are often to be found 

 penetrating into the sides of the ridges at a lower level, right 

 opposite the potatoes, so that labour is thereby economised. 



In protracted droughts, as in hard frosts, rooks have ex- 

 treme difficulty in obtaining their food-supplies. This I have 

 frequently noticed by about a score of them coming regularly 

 to feed in my back-garden, where scraps were throwa out to 

 the birds. No sooner, however, had there been a few hours' 

 rain than they disappeared, preferring grubs and worms — the 

 catching of which was facilitated by the moisture — to the bits 

 of bread and meat thrown out. So long as the weather re- 

 mained damp, with occasional showers, they were never seen, 

 but in dry weather, as in frost, they immediately returned. 

 The reason of this is obvious, as in dry hot weather grubs go 

 down into the cool earth beneath, but invariably return near 

 the surface after rain. 



It is asserted by some agriculturists that the damage done 

 to young wheat by rooks is not by eating the seed, but by 

 nipping off and devouring the shoot, which of course destroys 

 the plant. If such were the case, it is not too much to 

 say that when pressed by hunger in droughts or frost, they 

 would regale themselves on the shoots of grain or grass, 

 which they would have no difficulty in obtaining. This asser- 

 tion I am exceedingly loath to believe, as in none of those 

 whose gizzards I have examined have I ever found green 

 blades of any description. 



