220 THE ROOK. 



the Tweed, and where they do not roost at night in winter, 

 but come to the trees in the morning, and leave in the 

 evening, I have observed that they come to the rookery 

 about nine o'clock in the morning during that season, and 

 towards three o'clock in the afternoon return in straggling 

 flocks to the west, probably on their way to their winter 

 roosting-trees at Millburn, Marchmont, or Mellerstain, 



November chill blaws loud wi' angry sough, 

 The short'ning winter day is near a close ; 



The miry beasts returning frae the pleugh : 

 The black'ning trains o' Craws to their repose. 



Burns. 



Were it not for the annual " Crow-shootings " which take 

 place at the various rookeries in the county, about the second 

 week in May, when many thousands of the young birds 

 are killed, Eooks would soon increase to such an extent 

 that their natural food would fail, and they would commit 

 wholesale destruction amongst the crops of the farmer. In 

 the rookery at Paxton, which is only of moderate extent, no 

 fewer than 2400 young birds have been killed in a season. 

 A little calculation will show the vast increase which would 

 take place in the number of rooks in the county, if even 

 the young birds at Paxton Eookery only were allowed to 

 " fly " annually. It is therefore not surprising in early 

 times, when corn crops were scanty in Scotland, and guns were 

 not readily available for the destruction of the young birds, 

 that, as already mentioned, an Act of Parliament was passed 

 in the fifteenth century, to force proprietors of rookeries to 

 harry the nests before the young could fly. 



The following list of Eookeries in Berwickshire has been 

 prepared from answers to circulars sent by me to every 

 parish in the county, in February 1887 : — 



