131 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 



to the point of the bill, and consequently, it may be 

 supposed, would have been the first to suffer in the 

 digging process, while those which had disappeared 

 could scarcely have been removed by abrasion without 

 injury to the feathers, which still existed in an untouched 

 state." 



Though naturally insect feeders, yet there are times 

 when, pressed by hunger, rooks levy their contributions 

 on the newly-springing corn, and in hard winters they 

 will even frequent stackyards. They are very partial to 

 potatoes, at least they are much addicted to digging up 

 and carrying off those freshly planted, but it is chiefly 

 at the time when their young are clamorous for food, 

 " when there is little to earn and many to keep ;" indeed 

 they often suffer greatly from want at this time of the 

 year. Macgillivray doubts the assertion that the rook 

 pilfers freshly-planted potato sets, but I have seen them 

 do so hundreds of times. 



Though in our neighbourhood the corn is always 

 tended by boys from the time of sowing until it is well 

 out of the ground, in order to drive off the rooks, who 

 would otherwise commit great havoc, yet I think the 

 cultivators of the land have a pretty correct idea that, 

 on the whole, the labours of these birds are productive 

 of great benefit to the crops, and no greater destruction is 

 made than of an occasional one, who, with wings extended 

 by two split sticks, is placed in terrorem in the centre of 

 a corn or potato field ; and a very effectual scarecrow he 

 makes his constrained attitude is understood at a 

 glance by his wary brethren, and they need no other 

 hint. In some parts of the country the agriculturists 

 are not so conversant with the habits of the rook, and I 

 know that in one locality in an eastern county a large 



