A SUMMER-DAY TRAGEDY 143 



excitement which can be recognized half a mile 

 away. 



Whether, in the interest of the farmer, rooks 

 should be thinned down at the end of the nesting 

 season is a question whose answer depends on 

 their number. In a recent publication of the 

 Board of Agriculture, on the subject of the food 

 of birds, they are pronounced " decidedly bene- 

 ficial." Probably no bird does more good work 

 in the destruction of peculiarly noxious insects, 

 such as the wireworm and the leather -jacket, and 

 their skill in finding the latter and extracting it 

 from the soil is not short of wonderful. The 

 leather-jacket lives in a J-shaped burrow, and 

 retreats during the day into the curve, where it 

 is safe from most bird enemies. But rooks 

 systematically search for the burrows, and, thrust- 

 ing their powerful beaks into the soil above the 

 curve, pick out the larva with certainty and ease. 

 A piece of ground over which a flock has worked 

 will not at the end of the day contain many of 

 these destructive root-eaters. But doubtless there 

 can be too many rooks, as of other good things, 

 for the bird is catholic in its tastes, and has often 

 been shot with a crop stuffed with wheat and other 

 grains. It is therefore reasonable to assume that 

 where the birds are too abundant they levy an 

 undue toll on the kinds of food that are more easily 

 procured. As a general thing, however, rooks 

 work well for their wages. 



