180 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



The rook indeed, though so common a bird, and 

 so frequently written about by naturalists, has been 

 the subject of no little misrepresentation, from the 

 time Gesner termed it a corn-eater (Frit givora) , and 

 Linnaeus a corn-gatherer (Frugilegus) , up to the 

 present time. It has been well remarked by the Rev. 

 W. Bree, that " when any mischief is done in the 

 garden, the orchard, the plantation, or on the farm, 

 we are very apt, too hastily, to lay the blame on such 

 animals as may happen, in pursuance of their usual 

 habits, to be occupied in or near the spot where the 

 mischief takes place. Frogs and toads have, before 

 now, been accused of eating the strawberries, because 

 they are often met with among the strawberry-beds. 

 We have been told of a gentleman who charged the 

 rooks with having stripped his oak-trees of their 

 leaves. That the oaks were nearly bare was beyond 

 dispute ; and he had himself seen the rooks settling 

 upon them by thousands, and pecking away right and 

 left with their bills. War was therefore declared by 

 the owner against the rooks, and good store of am- 

 munition laid in for the occasion. But, fortunately 

 for the ' black population,' before hostilities actually 

 commenced, the gentleman was convinced by some 

 one who stepped in, and knew more of natural 

 history than he did himself, that the rooks were not 

 in fault ; quite the contrary ; they had only flocked 

 to the trees for the sake of devouring the myriads of 

 cockchafers, and of the larva? of moths, which were 

 the real depredators. Every country gentleman, 

 every gardener, every farmer, every person, in short, 

 who owns or is occupied about any portion of the 

 earth's surface, ought to learn something of natural 

 history ; for otherwise he runs the risk of persecuting 

 and destroying his best friends *." 



Most birds which feed on insects are distinguished 

 * Mag. Nat. Hist, v. 66, npte. 



