THE ROOK -AND HIS’ KIN. 11g 
an average, visit their young in nests about four times ; 
and if we take that as a fair specimen, eighty-four of 
these grubs are. destroyed per hour for each nest.” 
And it must not be thought, when rooks are seen 
congregated in a newly-sown field, or in one in which 
the corn is ripe, that they are necessarily feasting upon 
the grain. ‘“‘ The only rook,” writes the Rev. M.C.H. 
Bird to me, “that I have» opened during ‘crow- 
scaring’ time had been feeding on absolutely nothing 
but wireworms.” Neither must it be supposed that 
the tufts of corn, grass, &c., which it occasionally 
pulls from the ground are destroyed in a spirit of 
mischief. Beneath each a grub was lying, only to be 
reached by rooting up the plant; and, as the grub 
in question would have destroyed, not only that in- 
dividual plant, but also a large number in addition, 
the gain resulting to the agriculturist from the rook’s 
so-called “‘ mischief” is really very considerable. 
Sometimes a_ badly -infested piece of ground 
presents a very strange appearance after the rooks 
have performed their good work upon it. ‘I have 
seen,” says Mr. Bird in the letter above referred to, 
“rods of ground on the (Norfolk) marshes pecked 
up by the rooks in search of grubs, the moss lying 
about as if the grass had been bush-harrowed. Thus, 
I take it, they doubly benefit the farmer.” 
Another accusation frequently brought against the 
rook is that it drives its beak into the roots of turnips, 
or swedes, and so damages them as to spoil them for 
the market. The bird in so doing, however, is in 
almost every case busied in extracting the grubs of 
