60 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



rooks by hand and turned them loose in the garden, where 

 they have been continually under my observation, and I 

 have never yet seen one of these birds eat a slug or a snail. 



" Earthworms they will drag up and eat by morsels ; ear- 

 wigs, beetles, chrysalises and flies they will swallow whole in 

 any numbers. When given to them they will eat cold 

 potatoes, cbeese, biscuits and eggs, raw or cooked, and game. 



" One spends a great part of his time waylaying sparrows. 

 When caught he holds the sparrow down with his claws, 

 while he plucks it, regardless of its shrieks ; he then pulls 

 off the head, and, after eating the body, buries the head and 

 intestines. One of my rooks once caught a large frog, which 

 he tried to swallow whole, but one leg protruded from his 

 beak and was immediately snapped off by his fellow bird. 

 While gardening we have frequently offered numerous slugs 

 and snails to the rooks ; but, seeing that they never touched 

 them we, of course, now destroy these garden pests as soon 

 as discovered. 



"My rooks are quaint and amusing pets, easily tamed 

 and very intelligent." 



About their sagacity there cannot be the slightest doubt. 

 They are rarely caught in traps, though later on I give some 

 ingenious devices for that purpose; sticks driven into the 

 ground and connected by simple zigzags of string will keep 

 them away from any place. They have a horror of any sort 

 of beguilement, nearly as great as their repugnance to a 

 gun. The farmer who can get near enough to the rooks 

 unearthing his corn to shoot one of their number, will nob 

 be troubled by the survivors for some time to come. The 

 difficulty is to get within range. I failed so often in the 

 attempt that at last I fell back upon a Snider rifle ; with 

 this I have several times got to within one hundred and 

 fifty yards of a feeding flock, and a shot " into the brown " 

 or rather black, has caused a ridiculous panic without, how- 

 ever, any great harm being done to the birds. 



Sometimes their attention is transferred from corn to 



