CHAPTER XLIL WINGED VERMIN. 



THE ROOK. 



WE confess to some trepidation in treating the rook 

 as vermin, because we are but too well aware of 

 the never-ending dispute upon its merits and demerits 

 as a common object of the country. The best advice we 

 can offer to the game preserver or the farmer is, to 

 follow the path which his own experience points out, 

 and to leave hearsay to others. This bird and the crow 

 are more frequently confounded than any other of the 

 feathered denizens of these isles, and naturally, for to the 

 unaccustomed eye there is literally no difference in colour, 

 size, nor habit, between the two, while in most counties 

 the names are employed to designate both indiscriminately. 

 To the practised eye, however, the " look " we know no 

 more expressive word of the two birds is obvious, while 

 on close scrutiny the difference is marked. 



The rook is essentially gregarious, and prefers to pass 

 its time with as many more of its species as may be 

 compatible with harmony. It lacks a good deal of the 

 daring noticeable in the crow and other congeners, but 



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