THE ROOK. 125 



the growing crops at certain seasons at little 

 expense. " Tattie doolies," or " bogles," are often 

 tried, but not always successfully. Pieces of paper 

 fastened to a string attached to sticks is a 

 favourite "scare" with small cultivators, but the 

 best " scare " is the gun. There are other devices 

 which are equally effective, but illegal. It was said 

 of a penurious farmer, whom I knew, that he once 

 exchanged coats with a " bogle," thinking he had 

 the best of the bargain, and he was known ever 



afterwards as Bogle B . 



The Rook appears to have the same character 

 wherever found. Wilson, the American ornitho- 

 logist, says that he is there hounded as a thief 

 and plunderer ; a kind of black-coated vagabond 

 who hovers over the field of the industrious, 

 fattening on their labours, and, by his voracity, 

 often blasting their expectations. Hated as he 

 is by the farmer, watched and persecuted by 

 almost every bearer of a gun, who all triumph 

 in his destruction, had not heaven bestowed on 

 him intelligence and sagacity, far beyond what 



