ROOK. 293 



the insects so greedily that they were all destroyed in a short 

 time. It is also stated {lofi. cit.) that, about 1830, there was 

 such an enormous quantity of caterpillars upon Skiddaw, 

 that they devoured all the vegetation on the mountain, and 

 people feared they would attack the crops in the enclosed 

 lands ; hut the Rooks, having discovered them, in a very 

 short time put a stop to their ravages. 



A very different opinion once prevailed. In 1532 an Act 

 of Parliament (24 Hen. VIII. c. x.) enjoined all persons to kill 

 and utterly destroy all manner of Choughs, Crows and Rooks*, 

 and declared that the inhabitants of every place containing at 

 least ten households should at their own cost provide a netf 

 which was to be set at all convenient times at a " shrape "I, 

 made with chaff and other things fit for that purpose for the 

 destruction of these birds, and kept in repair for ten years 

 under penalty of 10s., a reward of twopence a dozen being 

 given for old birds. Bishop Stanley quotes an entry among 

 certain presentments concerning Alderley in Cheshire in 

 1598 : — " We find that there is no Crow-nett in the parish, 

 a payne that one be bought by the charge of the parish " ; 

 and doubtless many other such records exist. 



In Scotland, legal persecution began still earlier, and an 

 Act passed in 1424, followed by another in 1457, forfeited to 

 the king all trees whereon Rooks were suffered to build their 

 nests, should the nests be left at Beltane (May-day). In 

 Ireland, the statute of 17 Geo. II. c. x. offered a reward 

 for the head of any of the Crow-tribe. 



The attempts made by man to interfere directly with the 



* The vague meaning of " Chougli " has been already mentioned (page 253, 

 note). " Crow " and " Rook " are in common speech even now interchangeable, 

 witness Mr. Tennyson's " many-winter'd crow that leads the clanging rookery 

 home.'' 



f The Crow-net is figured and described in Willughby's ' Ornithology ', but 

 not very clearly. It " may be placed near any Barn-door where Corn is win- 

 nowed, or in a Corn-stubble, or on the Greensword in the Morning and Evening 

 haunts of any Birds where they gather Worms. Where-ever placed it must be 

 carefully hid and concealed, as much as may be, from the view of the Birds, as 

 if near a Barn-door by casting Chaff upon it, &c. " 



^. " Shrape ' signifies a place scraped, and so prepared for the catching of birds 

 which was apparently carried on in time of snow. 



