150 THE FOOD OF TH^ BOOK 



He sums up, therefore, against the rook ; without, it 

 appears, taking into due account the prodigious repro- 

 ductive power of insects, which, had they suffered less, 

 check from insectivorous birds, might have multiplied 

 to a truly calamitous extent. On the evidence it seems 

 a fair conclusion that the injury done by rooks to 

 agricultural crops is nearly, if not quite, balanced by 

 their destruction of injurious insects. 



The character of game birds lies under a darker 

 cloud, not merely of suspicion, but of assurance on the 

 part of practically every farmer. In this connection 

 attention may be drawn to a note in the Field news- 

 paper, for 25th December 1920, illustrated by a photo- 

 graph of the contents of a cock pheasant's crop. The 

 bird was shot in a market-garden near Ackfield in 

 Sussex, and its crop was' found to contain no fewer than 

 1083 leather jackets (which in Scotland we call ' pouts '), 

 the destructive larva of the daddy-long-legs or crane-fly. 

 This grub spends three years underground before pass- 

 ing into the pupal stage, and its ravages upon young 

 corn, grass and root crops are but too well understood 

 by farmers and gardeners. 



