THE ROOK AND HIS KIN. I15 
other birds. Most, if not all, of those which are now 
persecuted are beneficial to some degree, while not 
a few are regarded from a wholly false point of view, 
and treated as enemies although they are unqualified 
friends. Let us hope that the spread of natural 
history will ere long plead for these as it has already 
pleaded for the rook, and put a stop to slaughter 
which is as foolish as it is unnecessary. 
Prévost-Paradol gives the food of the rook as 
follows :— 
“January, field-mice and grubs of cockchafer ; 
February, the same and red worms; March, larvee 
and chrysalids ; April, slugs, worms, and chrysalids ; 
May, beetles, larvee, prawns, and wireworms; June, 
cockchafers, eggs of birds, and wood-boring beetles ; 
July, young birds, beetles, &c.; August, birds, field- 
mice, weevils, grasshoppers, crickets, &c. ; September, 
grubs and worms; October, grasshoppers, ground- 
beetles, and young animals ; November, young rabbits, 
different insects, and grubs; December, different 
animals, and decaying substances.” 
This list, however, is less complete than it should 
be, for the rook varies its diet at certain times of the 
year with corn, fruit, walnuts, and potatoes ; the latter 
usually during drought, when moisture is rare, and 
the succulent tubers are particularly attractive. It 
may be, however, that the bird extracts the potatoes 
for the sake of the grubs, &c., which are sometimes 
to be found feeding upon them, occasionally to so 
great an extent as totally to unfit them for purposes 
of the table. 
