The Rook 269 



a hawk; but the pigeon escaped by flying in at the 

 door of a house. He saw another strike a pigeon dead 

 from the top of a barn. The Crow is so bold a bird that 

 neither the kite, the buzzard, nor the raven, can approach 

 its nest without being driven away. When it lias young 

 ones, it will even attack the peregrine falcon, and at a 

 single pounce sometimes bring that bird to the ground. 



THE EOOK. (Corvus frugilegus.) 



THE cawing of these birds, on the tops of high trees near 

 gentlemen's houses, and in the middle of cities, is not 

 very pleasing ; yet old habits, to which we are reconciled, 

 have as much influence upon us as if they were pro- 

 ductive of amusement. Hence it has been seldom at- 

 tempted to destroy a rookery ; although the noise and 

 other inconveniences that accompany these birds render 

 their vicinity often troublesome. They feed entirely 

 on corn and insects, and are little bigger than the com- 

 mon crows. In Suffolk, and in some parts of Norfolk, the 

 farmers find it their interest to encourage the breed of 

 Rooks, as the only means of freeing their grounds from 

 the grub, which produces the cockchafer, and which in 

 this state destroys the roots of corn and grass to such a 

 degree, that instances have been known where the turf 

 of pasture land might be turned up with the foot. The 

 farmers in a northern county, a good many years ago, 

 waged a war of extermination against the Rooks, but 

 the very next year the crops were so completely cut up 

 by grubs, that the same proprietors were at considerable 



