156 SPRING. 



rather a predilection for the neighbourhood, if not for 

 the society of man ; and no sooner does he set to 

 work in turning up the soil in spring, or in clearing 

 the ground of the crop in autumn, than the rook 

 comes to clear it of those insects that would be so 

 destructive to him. When to this usefulness is added 

 the sociability of the birds, and their enlivening caw 

 at those times when they flock and breed, and how 

 knowingly they eye one in the fields, as well as with 

 what apparent quickness they find out whether there 

 be any hostile intention on the part of the passenger, 

 it is difficult to avoid feeling an attachment for the 

 rook, or forgiving it frankly for the little depreda- 

 tions that it commits upon the property of man at 

 times when those stores to which it is more partial, 

 and the destruction of which is of so much use, fail. 

 In long continued storms, the rooks are often reduced 

 to the greatest extremities, and may be seen hovering 

 about where piles of wood, heaps of rubbish, or any 

 other matters under which there is a chance of earth- 

 worms, have to be lifted. At those times they enter 

 the farm-yard, turn the litter over and over, search 

 old heaps of manure for the larvee that are in them, 

 and readily eat the grains that have passed through 

 the horses. A potatoe, too, even though frozen, is 

 readily eaten, and they will scratch down to and dig 

 into turnips in the fields. Sometimes those inclement 

 times are employed in carting out the manure, and 

 on such occasions all the rooks in the neighbourhood 

 come to the feast, as if an intimation had been sent 

 round all the coppices and forests where they lodge. 

 As long as the brooks and banks keep open they 



