282 ANIMALS AT WORK AND PL A Y 



dence as to this change of habit in the rook, is to 

 be seen in the physical alteration which accompanies 

 it. ' Along with this increase of carrion-crow-like 

 habits, there has been a great increase of rooks with 

 feathered faces/ These birds are quite unlike the 

 ordinary rook, which has a bare white patch at the 

 base of the bill. Many specimens were exhibited 

 before the Committee, and in an engraving by Mr 

 Lodge, which appears in the Report, the face of the 

 4 carnivorous ' rook can hardly be distinguished from 

 that of the crow. Whether the destruction of the 

 voles does not more than counterbalance the damage 

 done by demoralised rooks, is for the farmers and 

 landowners of the district to decide. But now 

 that a competent and impartial tribunal has pro- 

 nounced for the complete protection of the owl, the 

 kestrel, and the buzzard, and the smaller sea-gulls, it 

 is not too much to hope that a clause may be added 

 to the Wild Birds' Protection Act which may pre- 

 serve them, not only in certain months, or in par- 

 ticular districts, but at all times and in all counties 

 of the Kingdom. 



