198 ROOKS. 



harvest, by an order to kill the Eooks having heen generally 

 obeyed, the immediate consequence being an increase of 

 grubs and their depredations. For, allowing that the Rook 

 may do an occasional injury to the husbandman, it confers 

 benefits in a far greater proportion, and to an extent of which 

 few are aware. Some of our readers, who live in the southern 

 counties, know full well how the air, on a summer's evening, 

 swarms with cockchafers and other insects of the beetle tribe; 

 but, unless they are naturalists, they do not know that each 

 of those cockchafers or beetles has been living under-ground 

 for no less than from three to four years, in the form of a 

 large whitish grub, devouring incessantly the tender roots of 

 grasses, and every description of grain ; and that it is in 

 search of them the Rooks flock round the ploughshare, and, 

 thrusting their bills into the loosened earth, devour these 

 ruinous root-eaters by thousands and tens of thousands. So 

 injurious are they, indeed, in favourable seasons, that the sum 

 of twenty -five pounds was once allowed to a poor farmer in 

 Norfolk as a compensation for his losses; and the man and 

 his servant declared that they had actually gathered eighty 

 bushels of cockchafers. 



In France, again, many provinces were so ravaged by 

 grubs, that a premium was offered by government for the 

 best mode of ensuring their destruction; and yet, singularly 

 enough, so little were the people acquainted with the real 

 and best mode of stopping the mischief, that when their 

 dreadful Revolution broke out, accompanied with murder and 

 bloodshed which can never be forgotten, the country people, 

 amongst other causes of dissatisfaction with their superiors, 

 alleged their being fond of having rookeries near their houses; 

 and, in one instance, a mob of these misguided and ignorant 

 people proceeded to the residence of the principal gentleman 

 in the neighbourhood, from whence they dragged him, and 

 hung his body upon a gibbet, after which they attacked the 

 rookery, and continued to shoot the Rooks amidst loud 

 acclamations. 



It is scarcely necessary to name the wire-worm as one of 

 the greatest scourges to which the farmers are exposed; and 



