THE ROOK. 141 



grain, which no sooner is exhausted than the rooks forsake 

 the field till harvest approaches. 



" At one period I had ample opportunity of determining 

 whether the rooks are friends or enemies, and after careful 

 investigation arrived at the conclusion that the produce of 

 the farm, when obtainable, forms their staple food, and for 

 such favours they do little or nothing in return for their keep ; 

 and further, that one-half, or, more correctly, two-thirds 

 of the animal food consumed by these birds consists of the 

 friends and not the enemies of the crops. It were well, 

 therefore, that those who consider these bird friends defend 

 and demonstrate more clearly than they have hitherto done 

 the character of this, the most interesting British bird we 

 have. No one could be more pleased if this can be accom- 

 plished than the writer, for these jmrds are prime favourites." 



Another writer says : " While, as I have here pointed 

 out, they render immense service to agriculturists in pick- 

 ing up wireworms and grubs, which are so destructive to 

 plants, it is nevertheless true that in certain seasons they 

 are responsible for a very considerable amount of mischief. 

 When potatoes are appearing through the ground, they dig 

 down for the end, which they rarely fail to carry off, and 

 in consequence numerous blanks are visible when the crop 

 grows up, unless vigilance is practised by ' herding' them. 

 In the plundering of potato-fields rooks display a more than 

 ordinary degree of sagacity in their mode of getting at the 

 early potatoes. Instead of digging down along the side of 

 the plant from the top of the ridge, they are often to be 

 found penetrating into the sides of the ridges at a lower 

 level, right opposite the potatoes, so that labour is thereby 

 economised. 



" In protracted droughts, as in hard frosts, rooks have 

 extreme difficulty in obtaining their food-supplies. This 

 I frequently noticed by about a score of them coming 

 regularly to feed in my back-garden, where scraps were 

 thrown out to the birds. No sooner, however, had there 

 been a few hours' rain than they disappeared, preferring 

 grubs and worms the catching of which was facilitated 

 by the moisture to the bits of bread and meat thrown 



