THE ROOK. 89 



pretty sequestered spot between Ashted Park and the town of 

 Epsom, Eooks are said to have been first taken to the Temple 

 Gardens by Sir William Northey, secretary to Queen Anne. 

 How heightened is the pleasure given you by the contemplation 

 of a beautiful spot, when you think it has been the means of 

 conferring a good elsewhere. I would rather live near a rookery, 

 which had sent out a dozen colonies, than have the solitary idea 

 of them complete. In solitude you crave after human good ; 

 and here a piece of it, however cheap in the eyes of the scornful, 

 has been conferred ; for Sir William's colony nourishes, it seems, 

 in the smoke of London. Eooks always appeared to me the 

 clergymen among birds ; grave, black-coated, sententious ; with 

 an eye to a snug sylvan abode, and plenty of tithes. Their 

 clerkly character is now mixed up in my imagination with some- 

 thing of the lawyer. They and the lawyers' ' studious bowers,' 

 as Spenser calls the Temple, appear to suit one another. Did 

 you ever notice, by the way, what a soft and pleasant sound there 

 is in the voices of the young rooks a sort of kindly chuckle, like 

 that of an infant being fed ?" It has been, and is, a much-dis- 

 puted question, whether Books are most beneficial or hurtful toman. 

 WATEETON appears to think the balance as about equal : KNAPP, 

 that it inclines very much in favour of the birds, as does also 

 JESSE, who cites several instances in which they have effected 



food upon a most extensive scale. "An extensive experiment," 

 e tells us, " appears to have been made in some of the agricul- 

 tural districts on the continent, the result of which has been the 

 opinion that farmers do wrong in destroying Eooks, Jays, Spar- 

 rows, and, indeed, birds in general. In our own country, in some 

 very large farms in Devonshire, the proprietors determined, a 

 few summers ago, to try the result of offering a great reward for 

 the heads of Eooks ; but the issue proved destructive to the 

 farmers, for nearly the whole of the crops failed for three succes- 

 sive years, and they have since been forced to import Rooks and 

 other birds to restock their farms with." "A similar experiment," 

 says YABEELL, " was made a few years ago in a northern county, 

 in reference to Eooks, and with no better success ; the fanners 

 were obliged to reinstate the Eooks, to save their crops." 



MACGILLIVEAY has noticed that a great variety of notes are 

 uttered by the Eooks under different circumstances; and that so 

 far from their cry being always merely a kkra, as is generally 

 supposed, their voice is capable of great modifications. Their 

 imitative powers, too, are very considerable. Mr. WEIB, a cor- 

 respondent of the above-named naturalist, mentions one kept by 

 an old woman at Bathgate, which imitated so well the barking of 

 a dog, that if placed out of view, it was impossible to detect the 

 deception. HEWITSON speaks of a Eook which imitated the note 



