THE ROOK. 253 



doubt that Eooks during the whole of their lives associate 

 the memory of these battues with the appearance of a man 

 armed with a gun. Many people beheve that Eooks know 

 the smell of powder ; they have good reason to knoAv it ; 

 but tliat they are as much alarmed at the sight of a stick 

 as a gun in the hand of a man, may be proved by any one 

 who, chancing to pass near a flock feeding on the ground, 

 suddenly raises a stick. They will instantly fly off, evi- 

 dently in great alarm. 



While the young are being reared, the parent birds fre- 

 quent corn-fields and meadows, where they search about for 

 those plants which indicate the presence of a grub at the 

 root. Such they unscrupulously uproot, and make a prize 

 of the destroyer concealed beneath. They are much ma- 

 ligned for this practice, but without reason ; for, admitting 

 that they kill the plant as well as the grub, it must be 

 borne in mind that several of the grubs on which they 

 feed [Melolontha and Tipula) live for several years under- 

 ground, and that, during that period, they would, if left 

 undisturbed, have committed great ravages. I have known 

 a large portion of a bed of lettuces destroyed by a single 

 grub of Melolontha, having actually traced its passage un- 

 derground from root to root, and found it devouring the 

 roots of one which apj^eared as yet unhurt. Clearly, a 

 Eook w^ould have done me a service by uprooting the 

 first lettuce, and capturing its destroyer. 



I must here advert to a peculiar characteristic of the 

 Eook which distinguishes it specifically from the Crow. 

 The skin surroundmg the base of the bill, and covering 

 the upper part of the throat, is, in the adult birds, de- 

 nuded of feathers. Connected with this subject many 

 lengthy arguments have been proposed in support of two 

 distinct opinions : one, that the bareness above mentioned 

 is occasioned by the repeated borings of the bird for ils 

 food; the other,. that the feathers fall off naturally at tne 

 first moult, and are never replaced. I am inclined to th'<^ 



