THE ROOK 55 



sorts, the larvae of cockchafers, etc. In fact, in my 

 opinion that of a tenant farmer who is forced to make 

 things pay all the Rook's acts of depredation ought to 

 be forgotten if we carefully consider the great services 

 he renders to the agriculturist. Beetles, tipula (Daddy 

 Longlegs grubs), warble grubs, oak-leaf roller cater- 

 pillars, and the caterpillars of- the diamond-backed moth 

 he devours. The game-preserver may grudge the birds 

 their plundering of his nests, but the farmer is in grati- 

 tude bound to spare them. A lot of young birds at the 

 rook-shooting time are still unable to take a flight of any 

 distance, but others are, happily for themselves, able to 

 fly well. I am persuaded that the old parent birds often 

 foreseeing a shooting raid get these out of the way, 

 and so they secure life for a number of their young who 

 might have been sacrificed. They betake themselves in 

 parties to their footings about the elms upon outlying 

 pastures. Daily they grow stronger on the wing, and 

 learn the ways and means of living. 



Like all long-lived creatures, the Rook is temperate in 

 eating, and he is capable of going a long time without 

 food a faculty which stands him in good stead during 

 hard winters. In a long frost or a prolonged drought he 

 is a most determined robber, and when he is on what he 

 knows to be forbidden ground, he posts a sentinel to 

 give warning of the approaching farmer or watcher. 

 He is known to take the eggs of such favourite birds 

 as the thrush and the blackbird, whose nests are open, 

 and therefore soon discovered and plundered. But this 

 is no doubt where his proper food is scarce; and if 

 man had not been so eager in the destruction of some 

 of our birds of prey, who are the natural enemies of him 

 and his, Rooks would be less plentiful in some districts. 



