106 THE BIRDS OF OXFORDSHIRE. 



}'oung alone must amount to an incredible number, and the 

 great flocks of Rooks seen in our pastures and meadows during 

 the greater part o£ the year, must rid them of countless de- 

 structive grubs and insects. Many a root croj) too, attacked 

 in early autumn by wireworms, and that dark grey gmb which 

 is so injm-ious, is saved by the Rooks. I am glad to think 

 that most Oxfordshire agriculturists seem fully aware that 

 when the balance is struck between the good and evil done by 

 the Rook, it is largely in its favour. 



The good deeds of this bird were not, however, recognized in 

 former days. By the Statute, 24 Henry VIII. cap. 10 

 (1532), all persons occupying lands were enjoined to kill and 

 destroy all choughs, crows, and rooks which did ' yearly devour 

 and consume a wonderful and marvellous great quantity of 

 corn and grain of all kinds,^ And the Act provides that every 

 parish should provide ' one net commonly called a net to take 

 choughs crows and rooks,^ and lay the same at the times and 

 places convenient and expedient for the destruction of the 

 birds. The Crow-net is figured in Willughby^s Ornithology 

 (1678). Dr. Plot, describing the 'arts' relating to corn in 

 this county, writes, ' If the Crows towards harvest are anything 

 mischievous, as they many times are, destroying the corn in 

 the outer limits of the fields, they dig a hole narrow at 

 the bottom, and broad at the top, in the green swarth near 

 the corn, wherein they put dust, and cinders from the Smith's 

 forge, mixt with a little gunpowder, and in and about the 

 holes stick feathers (Crow-feathers if they can get them), 

 which they find about Burford to have good success ' {Natural 

 History of Oxo7i, ch. ix, § 98). But whether this was to 

 frighten the Rooks, or to catch them, does not appear. 



THE JACKDAW. ^ ^^ 



Corviis motiedula. 

 The Jackdaw is a common resident, breeding numerously in 

 the hollows of old elm and other trees, and also in buildings. 



