PASSERIFORMES 153 



amongst them which destroyed several. Dr Wright, who examined two 

 of the dead birds, stated that the disease was identical with the epidemic 

 then prevalent amongst domestic poultry. The dead birds were unusually 

 fat, and the survivors refused the food placed for them on the outbreak 

 of the disease. 



In 1873 several pairs built and nested; but in the following year's 

 report we read: "they are not doing so well. The young have died," 

 and it is suggested that the climate is too hot for them. 



The increase of these birds has been slow in the North Island ; 

 they spread to Hick's Bay, Hawke's Bay and Lake Taupo. Mr H. 

 Guthrie reports : " A colony of rooks has for long existed in Puketapu. 

 In favourable years colonies start one, for instance, in Petane, but 

 the rook does not do well in this part." 



The rook seems to have a bad time in Hawke's Bay, and pastoralists 

 and fruit-growers alike blame it for many evil things it is supposed 

 to do. They conveniently ignore the good. In 1917, at a meeting of 

 the Fruit-growers' Association at Hastings, a member stated that the 

 rooks "were doing considerable damage to walnuts, amounting to 

 some hundreds of pounds." Later on, farmers complained that 



the rooks have acquired the habit of attacking lambs and full-grown sheep, 

 and the losses in some parts of the district are becoming serious. The birds 

 not only attack flocks in the daytime, but also during moonlight nights, 

 and one farmer near Farndon has lost scores nightly. The rooks attack the 

 throats of the sheep, and wethers can be seen in paddocks with open wounds. 

 One was seen with the head completely severed, with the exception of 

 the spinal column. The birds also eat the flesh right down the middle of 

 the back, rendering the skin quite useless. 



This is the sort of newspaper paragraph that gains credence in the 

 country, but is absolutely incorrect. One farmer states that he had 

 30 acres of sprouting oats completely uprooted by rooks. Against 

 this unvouched-for evidence I have information from several well- 

 known men in Hawke's Bay, who certify that the birds are at no time 

 a nuisance. One gentleman, connected with the Tomoana Freezing 

 Works, suggests that several hoggets were dying or dead, and the 

 crows seeing them with ticks on them, picked the latter away. He 

 ridicules the idea that they could hurt sheep. Mr H. Hill, lately 

 Mayor of Napier, and formerly Senior Inspector under the Education 

 Board, sums up the case as follows: 



Rooks may pull up wheat now and then, but only to discover a worm, 

 and the question is whether the balance is not in favour of the rook under 

 the circumstances. Surely a bird cannot be expected to live and benefit 

 man without obtaining a part of his maintenance from what it helps to 

 preserve. The fact is, the farmer expects his crops to be protected from 

 all insect pests without cost or responsibility on his own part. 



