THE BIRDS OF RAINHAM. 43 



to drop them on the stone embankments by the river 

 side, and if unbroken rises again with them. Is an 

 indiscriminate feeder, mixes with the Rooks on the 

 newly sown wheat, stays with us till the first week in 

 April, and pecks out the eyes of the first lambs that 

 fall before taking its departure for the north. 



ROOK. 

 Corvus frugilegus. Linn. 



Taking my farm as a criterion of the Rooks' use- 

 fulness, throughout the summer I see but few, 

 when I begin to sow the wheat in the autumn they 

 come by thousands and continue doing so, off and 

 on, throughout the winter, leaving soon after the 

 barley is sown in the spring. Now if those persons 

 who support a rookery, and where Rooks super- 

 abound were to feed them with several sacks of corn 

 per day, they would then know the worth of the 

 depredators they harbour and encourage. 



JACKDAW. 

 Corvus monedula. Linn. 



The Jackdaws in winter will sometimes associate 

 with the Rooks, but are not such inveterate thieves, 

 and will make themselves contented with the fresh laid 

 out manure-heaps. I do not, as a rule, find them 

 troublesome. Their breeding haunts are few in my 



