CHAPTER VIII. 

 THE ROOK. 



THERE are but few, if indeed there are any, of our rivers 

 of any size without one or more rookeries in the trees 

 which grow so luxuriantly in the valleys through which 

 they run. 



The ROOK (Corvus frugilegus ; family, Corvidce) never 

 fails, therefore, to put in an appearance. His glossy 

 black plumage attracts our attention as he struts over the 

 water-meadows seeking for slugs and worms, larvae and 

 the like. 



The rook, or, as he is more commonly called, the Crow 

 or Craw, was in former days the most maligned of the 

 feathered race; he sucked eggs, ate the young chicks in 

 the poultry-yard, devoured the new-sown corn, and had 

 the audacity to follow the husbandman in the field and try 

 and deceive him by his friendship ; he tore up the roots of 

 the fresh-sprouting wheat out of mischief, and gobbled up 

 all the fruit on the trees. In fact, at one time he was 

 considered such a delinquent that every man's hand was 

 against him. In the reign of bluff King Harry rooks and 

 crows were so numerous, and were thought to be so detri- 

 mental to the farmers, that an Act was passed for their 

 destruction. Every hamlet was to provide crow-nets for 

 two years, and the inhabitants were obliged at certain 

 times to assemble and concert measures for their extermi- 

 nation. 



Ray, in his edition of " Willughby," says : " These 

 birds are noisome to corn and grain. If rooks infest your 

 corn, they are more terrified by taking a rook and plucking 



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