102 NATURALISTS CABINET. 



White crow at Exeter 'Change. 



of a common crow's nest on Lord Egremont's 

 ^estate, at Petworth, in Sussex ; and to have been 

 presented to Mr. Pidcock ; in whose possession, 

 it has been about sixteen years. 



THE ROOK. 



THE rook is something larger than the car- 

 rion crow, but its plumage is more glossy ; and 

 the nostrils, and the root of the bill are naked; 

 whereas in the crow they are covered with bristly 

 hair. It is said to have no craw, but a sort of 

 gullet below the bill, which occasionally dilates 

 itself into a sort of bag, wherein it carries the 

 meat from a considerable distance that it has 

 gathered for its young. 



These birds occasion some inconvenience to 

 the farmer by feeding on his grain; but this seems 

 compensated by the good tbey/lo to him, in ex- 

 tirpating the maggots of some of the most de- 

 structive of the beetle tribe. In Suffolk, and 

 in some parts of Norfolk, the farmers find it their 

 interest to encourage the breed of rooks, as the 

 only means of freeing their grounds from the 

 grub that produces the cock-chafer, which in 

 this state destroys the roots. of corn and grass to 

 *uch a degree, that Mr. Stillingfleet observes, he 

 ljus ?<en a piece of pasture-land where you might 

 turn up the turf with your foot. An intelligent 

 fanner in Berkshire informed this gentleman^ 



