By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 139 



its roots, and in this way detects them ; but if the blade of grass 

 is firm, the rook goes to another part of the ground. In a field 

 where grubs are very abundant, the rooks scatter the grass every- 

 where, so as to give the appearance of having rooted it up, while 

 they have only exposed the depredations of the insects by which, 

 the roots have been destroyed." The author of the Journal of a 

 Naturalist, speaking of the readiness with which rooks detect the 

 places where grubs are sure to be found, says : " I have often 

 observed them alight on a pasture of uniform verdure, and ex- 

 hibiting no sensible appearance of feathering or decay, and imme- 

 diately commence stocking up the ground. Upon investigating 

 the object of their operations, I have found many heads of plain- 

 tains, the little autumnal dandelions, and other plants, drawn out 

 of the ground, and scattered about, their roots having been eaten 

 off by a grub, leaving only a crown of leaves upon the surface." 

 It may readily be supposed that extensive injury at the root of a 

 plant cannot exist long without some alteration in the appearance 

 of the leaves, or other parts, above ground, and the rooks seem to 

 have learned by experience how to select those plants which are 

 the most likely to afford them some recompense for the trouble 

 they take in grubbing them up. Jesse, ^ in his instructive Glean- 

 ings, says, " A gentleman once showed me a field which had all 

 the appearance of having been scorched, as if by a burning sun in 

 dry hot weather : the turf peeled from the ground as if it had been 

 cut with a turfing spade, and we then discovered that the roots of 

 the grass had been eaten away by the larvae of the cockchaffer, 

 which were found in countless numbers at various depths in the 

 soil. This field was visited by a great quantity of rooks, thougb 

 there was no rookery within many miles of the neighbourhood, 

 ^ who turned up, and appeared to devour the grubs with great satis- 

 faction." To prove their utility on other occasions, two or three 

 quotations from the Magazine of Natural History, among many 

 others, will suffice : " A flight of locusts visited Craven, and they 

 were so numerous as to create considerable alarm among the 

 farmers of the district. They were however soon relieved from 

 ' Jesse's Gleanings in Natural History, p. 30. 



