300 THE ROOK'S BILL. 



of the bird thrusting its bill into the ground, these stumps would fall 

 out at the regular moulting time, and new feathers would soon make 

 their appearance. If, again, these feathers have been loosened at 

 their roots by the process of thrusting the bill into the ground (which 

 I consider next to impossible), and in consequence of this have 

 fallen out from their places, new feathers would be observed in a 

 few weeks ; for, when once a feather is eradicated, nature instantly 

 sets to work to repair the loss by producing another ; nor do we 

 know of any process, that can be applied with success, to counteract 

 this admirable provision of nature. Again, these new feathers being 

 full of blood at the roots, any application tending to grind them 

 down, or to eradicate them, would be so painful to the rook, that it 

 would not be able to thrust its bill deep into the ground. 



I request the reader to bear in mind, that these arguments are 

 brought forward only under the accepted supposition of naturalists, 

 that the feathers are removed by the process of the bird thrusting its 

 bill into the ground. But he who examines the subject with atten- 

 tion will at once see that the process itself could not destroy the 

 feathers on the head of the rook ; because, if they were destroyed 

 by this process, the carrion crow, the jackdaw, the jay, the magpie, 

 and the starling, would all exhibit a similar nudity on the forehead 

 and at the base of the bill ; for they all thrust their bills into the 

 ground proportionably as deep as the rooks do theirs, when in quest 

 of worms and grubs. Moreover, if the feathers are eradicated by the 

 act of thrusting the bill into the ground, they would be succeeded by 

 new ones, during the time in which that act could not be put in 

 execution ; for example, during a very dry summer, or during a very 

 hard winter ; and at these periods, as no action on the part of the 

 rook would operate to destroy the coming feathers, an evident change 

 would soon be observed about the head of the bird. In 1814, the 

 ground was so very hard frozen, and covered with snow for some 

 months, that the rooks could not by any means have an opportunity 

 of thrusting their bills into it. Still, during this protracted period of 

 frost, I could not see a solitary instance of renewal of the feathers 

 on the forehead, or at the base of the bill, in the many birds which 

 I examined. 



I deny that the rook does, in general, thrust his bill deep into the 



