62 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



friends in numbers the next morning. In former years, 

 when drought has prevailed, instances have been recorded 

 of rooks robbing nests of the callow brood ; and in the 

 winter, too, when the ground has been too hard for them to 

 get food, they have been known to hawk after and kill 

 small birds." 



But rooks afford some legitimate sport in May time, and 

 such transgressions as these are very rare indeed, the result 

 unquestionably of being very greatly pressed by hunger^. 

 Probably not one keeper in fifty has lost birds by rooks. 

 Crows (and crows, I may point out to the unlearned in 

 country side lore,, are quite distinct from rooks) do do some 

 damage to our pheasants and partridges. In Norway and 

 Sweden they and the magpies have obliterated ryper and 

 grouse from the fell sides. Here at home they cater for 

 their young with an atrocious want of discrimination 

 generally bringing prompt vengeance upon them. Only 

 let us be certain when the luckless corbie is arraigned and 

 executed that we have got hold of the real criminal. 



A suggestive story in point should make many a game- 

 keeper of conscience look aside as he passes his museum on 

 barn door or ash tree. 



" Some time ago there were several letters in The Field 

 regarding hedgehogs eating eggs. Within a single season 

 there have been two distinct cases come under observa- 

 tion, that have conclusively settled the question for ever. 

 The first is this : I had a tame duck laying under some tops 

 of trees that had been recently felled in the wood where 

 I reside. There were five eggs in the nest. On the follow- 

 ing morning there were only two and a piece of shell. On 

 the following night I put down a common rabbit trap at the 

 nest, let into the ground, and covered over. About ten p.m. 

 I heard something crying out (similar to the noise made by 

 a hare when in distress). Upon my going I found a very 

 large hedgehog in the trap. I took it out, killed it, and set 

 the trap again. About eleven p.m. there was another large 



