BIRDS AS THE FARMER'S FRIEND. 323 



down with closed wings, and plunder his favourite fruit 

 bushes. The dinner hour for instance becomes well 

 known to these birds, and dozens of them will re- 

 gularly come for the purpose of plundering the 

 garden at this quiet hour. And yet they are so 

 wary and so quick and strong upon the wing, that it 

 is very hard even to get a shot at the depredators. 

 The only way is to conceal oneself under cover before 

 hand, and to wait patiently till the thieves alight; but 

 even so, so keen is their sight, the great chances are 

 that they will see you, and be off before you have time 

 to fire. (Wood pigeons are best shot by waiting for them 

 under the trees they are known to roost in at dusk). 



The partridge, and the quail etc., are however harm- 

 less birds which everybody ought to welcome ; they live 

 upon fallen grain, slugs, worms etc., and rarely can 

 be convicted of doing positive injury to the farmer. 

 So also with the rook ; he may in general be accounted 

 " the farmer's friend " rather than his foe, in consid- 

 eration of the vast numbers of wire worms, grubs, and 

 other injurious larvae which these birds consume. They 

 may as we know r , be seen following closely after the 

 plough, while in pursuit of their favourite occupation 

 of feeding upon these insects. 



From time immemorial it has been the custom to 

 shoot the young rooks as they issue from the nests, 

 and a good day's rook shooting with a shot gun, or 

 better still perhaps with a pea-rifle, affords both good 

 sport and good practice for the youthful sportsman. 

 If rooks are not occasionally thinned off in this way, 

 we know an instance where their numbers increased 

 so . tremendously that their countless droppings made 

 the woods quite unpleasant, and it was generally held 



