118 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
who knows how very destructive to vegetation are the 
larve of the tribes of insects .... fed upon by 
rooks, some slight idea may be formed of the devas- 
tation which rooks are the means of preventing.” 
A correspondent of the Gardeners Magazine, 
vol. ix., p. 718, makes the following remarks upon 
the same subject :— 
‘““T have repeatedly examined the crops of rooks ; 
in six young that had been shot the crops were nearly 
filled with wireworms ; in the crops of others I have 
found the larve of the cockchafer, and other grubs 
that I am not entomologist enough to know the 
names of. In one or two instances, in frosty weather 
—when, of course, wireworms, &c., could not be 
obtained—I have examined the crop of one or more 
rooks that had been shot: it contained dung, earth, 
and a small portion of grain. I will just notice that 
the land adjoining Mr. Wiles’s rookery is annually 
sown with pulse or grain, and in no instance have I 
known or heard that the land has in consequence 
failed of a crop.” 
The following communication also appeared in 
Sctence-Gosstp for September, 1880 :— 
‘“¢ About ten days ago a rook from amongst a flock 
which were feeding in a meadow here was shot for 
the purpose of ascertaining what they were so busily 
looking after. In its mouth, or pelican-like pouch, 
in which they carry food to the sitting hens and to 
their young ones, were found twenty-one 7?fuw/a grubs, 
which no doubt were intended for young which had 
escaped rook-shooting. I find rooks in an hour, on 
