convict. 227 



I shall, therefore, lay as much evidence as I can 

 before my readers, and leave them to form their own 

 judgment, my opinion being that the Rook is of the 

 greatest possible benefit to the farmer and that he 

 may well say : 



" Dat veniam Corvis vexat sensura Columbas." 



As to the Pigeons, we shall come to them in due 

 time, but now for the Books, and I will begin with 

 M. Prevost's list of food, which is as follows : 

 " January, field-mice and grubs of cockchaffers : 

 February, the same and red worms ; March, larvae 

 and chrysalids : April, slugs, worms and chrysalids ; 

 May, beeetles, larvae, prawns and wire-worms ; June, 

 cockchaffers, eggs of birds and wood-boring beetles ; 

 July, young birds, beetles, &c. ; August, birds, field- 

 mice, weevils, grasshoppers, crickets, &c. ; Septem- 

 ber, grubs and worms; October, grasshoppers, 

 ground beetles and young animals; November, 

 young rabbits, different insects and grubs ; Decem- 

 ber, different animals and decaying substances." 



This list of M. Prevost's and a note of my own, 

 in the * Zoologist' for 1864, led to a good deal of 

 discussion on the subject of the food of the Rook. 

 My note was as follows: "As to young rabbits I 

 can quite bear out the assertion of M. Prevost, for 

 in the spring of 1862 I saw and watched for some 

 time a Rook busily engaged in feeding on something 

 close by a hedge : so busy was he that he let me 



