POUCH OF THE ROOK. 57 
lump under the bill, when the skin in that part is 
distended with a supply of food. Indeed, you can 
observe it at a considerable distance, either while 
the bird is on the ground, or when it is flying across 
you, on account of its white appearance, contrasted 
with the sable plumage. On the other hand, the 
carrion crow, the magpie, the jay, and even the 
jackdaw, are all birds of ruined character. Their 
misfortunes make them shy; and thus you are pre- 
vented from having much intercourse with them. 
The gardener and the henwife can never be brought 
to look upon them with the least appearance of kind 
feeling ; while the gamekeeper, that cholera morbus 
to the feathered race, foolishly imagines that he 
proves his attention to his master’s interests, by 
producing a disgusting exhibition of impaled birds 
on the kennel walls. Nay, show me, if you can, a 
young squire, idling from college, who does not try 
to persuade the keeper that it is his bounden duty 
to exterminate all manner of owls, ravens, carrion 
crows, hawks, herons, magpies, jays, daws, wood- 
peckers, ringdoves, and such like vermin, from his 
father’s estate. With this destroying force to con- 
tend with, in the shape of keeper, squire, and hen- 
wife, it is not to be wondered at, that naturalists 
have so few opportunities of watching individuals of 
the pie tribe through the entire course of their in- 
cubation ; which individuals, if persecution did not 
exist, would be seen in the breeding season, perpe- 
tually passing to and fro, with their mouths full of 
food for their young. 
