THE ROOK. 181 



And that all men after their power destroy nestes and egges of 

 birdes and foules of riefe. 



" Item. Anent ruikes, crawes, and uther foules of riefe, as eirnes, 

 bissettes, gleddes, mittales, the quhilk destroyis baith comes and 

 wilde foules, sik as pertrickes, plovares, and utheris. And as to 

 the ruikes and crawes, biggand in orchardes, trees, and uther 

 places : It is seen speedeful that they that sik trees perteinis to, 

 let them to big and destroy them with all their power, and in na 

 waies that their birdes flee awaie. And quhair it is tainted that 

 they big and their birdes flee, and the neste be founden in the 

 trees at Beltane: the trees sail be faulted to the King: bot gif 

 they be redeemed fra him be them that they perteined first, and 

 five shillinges to the Kingis unlaw. And that the said foules of 

 riefe all utterly be destroyed be all maner of men, be all ingine 

 of all maner of crafts that may be founden. For the slauchter of 

 them sail cause great multitude of divers kind of wilde foules for 

 man's sustentation." A similar Act on ruikes Uggan in trees had 

 previously been passed (26th May, 1424), and its repetition shows 

 the importance attached to the subject of their alleged depreda- 

 tions. Nearer our own times, having become omnivorous in its 

 tastes, the Rook was considered a subject for fowling, and in a 

 curious old work entitled the " Gentleman's Recreation," pub- 

 lished in 1678, I find the following advice: " How to take ROOKS 

 when they pull up the Corn by the Roots : Take some thick Brown 

 paper and divide a sheet into eight parts and make them up like 

 Sugar loaves; then lime the inside of the Paper a very little: (let 

 them be limed three or four days before you set them); then put 

 some Corn in them, and lay three score or more of them up and 

 down the ground; lay them as near as you can under some clod 

 of Earth, and early in the Morning before they come to feed; and 

 then stand at a distance and you will see most excellent sport; 

 for as soon as Rooks, Crows, or Pigeons come to peck out any of the 

 Corn, it will hang upon his head, and he will immediately fly bolt 

 upright so high that he shall soar almost out of sight, and when 

 he is spent, come tumbling down as if he had been shot in the 

 Air." Though the author of this amusing and at the same time 

 interesting volume makes use of the general term "crows," it 

 may fairly be presumed that in trying the experiment himself, 

 he would find hooded crows among the victims. 



Macgillivray mentions having found large flocks of Rooks occa- 



