52 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER III. 

 CROWS. 



AMONGST THE BOOKS. 



THERE could not well be a thinner excuse than that which 

 justifies the shooter's intentions as he goes out at the season 

 of new green leaves to ravage the homes of his ancestral 

 servitors the rooks. He says, perhaps, as he fills his pockets 

 with cartridges, something about the need of adjusting the 

 balance of Nature, and of the damage the young "crows," 

 already noisy in the avenue outside, will do presently to the 

 spring corn. Ten days ago had you asked him, his opinions 

 were all in favour of the dusky birds, and he recognized that 

 their plumage is but a physical chance, and not the livery of 

 sin some have pretended. And a fortnight hence he will 

 acknowledge that they do yeoman service on grass and plough, 

 searching with restless inquisitiveness for grub and wireworm, 

 and giving all and sundry of these and such other small but 

 powerful enemies of the farmer the shortest shift. Yet for 

 the brief period intervening between the feathering of the 

 young birds and their incorporation with the wandering flocks 

 of their parents, squire and farmer are remorseless, and per- 

 secute them with a vigour not a little remarkable. But very 

 likely the fact that this is a chance of burning powder coming 

 after an abstinence and before another spell of the sportsman's 

 Ramadam, accounts for the change of principle. Moreover 

 there is delight simply in being out of doors in " the leafy 

 month of June." 



