308 THE ROOK. 



under them. To effect this, they come headlong down on pinion a 

 little raised, but not expanded in a zig-zag direction (presenting 

 alternately their back and breast to you), through the resisting air, 

 which causes a noise similar to that of a rushing wind. This is a 

 magnificent and beautiful sight to the eye of an ornithologist. It 

 is idle to suppose for a moment that it portends wind. It is merely 

 the ordinary descent of the birds to an inviting spot beneath them, 

 where, in general, some of their associates are already assembled, or 

 where there is food to be procured. When we consider the pro- 

 digious height of the rooks at the time they begin to descend, we 

 conclude that they cannot effect their arrival at a spot perpendicular 

 under them by any other process so short and rapid. 



Rooks remain with us the year throughout. If there were a defi- 

 ciency of food, this would not be the case ; for when birds can no 

 longer support themselves in the place which they have chosen for 

 their residence, they leave it, and go in quest of nutriment elsewhere. 

 Thus, for want of food, myriads of wild fowl leave the frozen north 

 and repair to milder climates ; and in this immediate district, when 

 there is but a scanty sprinkling of seeds on the whitethorn bush, our 

 flocks of fieldfares and of redwings bear no proportion to those in 

 times of a plentiful supply of their favourite food. But the number 

 of rooks never visibly diminishes ; and, on this account, we may safely 

 conclude that, one way or other, they always find a sufficiency of 

 food. Now, if we bring as a charge against them, their feeding 

 upon the industry of man, as, for example, during the time of a hard 

 frost, or at seedtime, or at harvest, at which periods they will commit 

 depredations, if not narrowly watched, we ought in justice to put down 

 in their favour the rest of the year, when they feed entirely upon 

 insects. Should we wish to know the amount of noxious insects 

 destroyed by rooks, we have only to refer to a most valuable and 

 interesting paper on the services of the rook, signed T. G. Clitheroe, 

 Lancashire, which is given in the Magazine of Natural History, vol. 

 vi., p. 142. I wish every farmer in England would read it, they would 

 then be convinced how much the rook befriends them. 



Some author (I think Goldsmith) informs us, that the North 

 American colonists got the notion into their heads that the purple 

 grakle was a great consumer oi their maize ; and these wise men of 



