s THE ROOK 69 
Scandinavia and the Isles of Scotland, where the Carrion Crow 
and Rook are all but unknown, so in England the representative 
of the tribe is the Rook, a bird so like the Crow that it is called 
by its name almost as frequently as by its own, yet so different 
in habits that, instead of being under a perpetual and universal 
ban, it is everywhere encouraged and indeed all but domesticated. 
There are few English parks that do not boast of their rookery, 
and few proprietors of modern demesnes pretending to be parks, who 
would not purchase at a high price the air of antiquity and respect- 
ability connected with an established colony of these birds. Owing 
to their large size and the familiarity with which they approach 
the haunts of men, they afford a facility in observing their habits 
which belongs to no other birds; hence all treatises on Natural 
History, and other publications which enter into the details of 
country life in England, abound in anecdotes of the Rook. Its 
intelligence, instinctive appreciation of danger, voracity, its utility 
or the reverse, its nesting, its morning repasts and its evening 
flights, have all been observed and more or less faithfully recorded 
again and again; so that its biography is better known than that 
of any other British bird. It would be no difficult task to compile 
from these materials a good-sized volume, yet I doubt not that 
enough remains untold, or at least not sufficiently authenticated, 
to furnish a fair field of inquiry to any competent person who 
would undertake to devote his whole attention to this one bird for 
a considerable period of time. Such a biographer should make 
himself master of all that has been recorded by various authorities, 
and should then visit a large number of rookeries in all parts of 
the kingdom, collecting and sifting evidence, making a series of 
personal observations, and spreading his researches over all seasons 
of the year. Such an inquiry, trivial though it may seem, would 
be most useful, for the Rook, though it has many friends, 
has also many enemies, and, being everywhere abundant, its 
agency for good or evil must have serious results. The following 
account being imperfect from want of space, the reader who wishes 
to know more about this interesting bird must refer to our standard 
works on Ornithology, and, above all, record and compare his 
own personal observations. 
In the early spring months Rooks subsist principally on the 
larve and worms turned up by the plough, and without gainsay, 
they are then exceedingly serviceable to the agriculturist, by 
destroying a vast quantity of noxious insects which, at this period 
of their growth, feed on the leaves or roots of cultivated vegetables. 
Experience has taught them that the ploughman either has not the 
power or the desire to molest them; they therefore approach 
the plough with perfect fearlessness, and show much rivalry in their 
efforts to be first to secure the treasures just turned up. During 
the various processes to which the ground is subjected in prepara- 
