AND INCREASE OF CERTAIN BIRDS IN SCOTLAND, 59 
from its nesting-places. Fifty years ago this bird used to 
be common in Berwickshire and East Lothian, according to 
all the authorities, written and verbal, whom I have con- 
sulted. Now, in Berwickshire, Muirhead says it is “ almost 
extinct.”* In East Lothian I have seldom seen or heard it 
as yet. Persecution by ignorant keepers will not account for 
this, for the Tawny Owl (Syrniwm aluco) and Long-eared . 
Owl (Asio otus) are not uncommon. ‘The fact that jack- 
daws occupy at present all the known old nesting-places of 
the barn owl is significant, and there can be little doubt 
that this pert and bustling bird has evicted the useful owl. 
In my opinion, matters are becoming serious. No one 
species of bird has a right to multiply so as to swamp other 
species. In a state of nature this could not happen; the 
Creator did not intend it to be so. If the increase of 
jackdaws and rooks (and I may also add the name of the 
starling, though it is not actually one of the Corvidx) goes 
on at its present rate, there will not be sufficient food for 
these voracious birds alone—leaving the more modest and 
timid birds out of the question. In order to live they must 
change their habits and take to other food. In fact, I 
believe that at this moment this change is taking place, ¢,g., 
jackdaws and rooks are now taking to sucking eggs—a 
habit which, apparently, they have been forced to adopt 
because of their numbers. Rooks are learning to dig up 
and destroy potatoes and to root up early wheat for lack of 
proper food. When on this subject, I mention, only to 
ridicule, the idea that the starling sucks small birds’ eggs ; 
but unless the great increase of this bird is checked some- 
how, it will be forced to take to some other equally bad habit. 
The rook has driven out lately a large colony of Herons 
(Ardea cinerca) from the trees in an island in Cama Loch, 
Sutherland, and I doubt not that it will go on driving out 
other birds before it unless some measures are taken. 
But I have kept till now the bird which, after the 
pheasant, is chiefly responsible for the decrease of other 
birds. The Common Sparrow (Passer domesticus) is a creature 
for which, as an ornithologist, it is extremely difficult to say 
one good word. 
* Birds of Berwickshire, vol. i. p. 280. 
