THE DESTRUCTION OF VERMIN AND PESTS 177 



this keeper's beat, in Assynt in Sutherlandshire, the Wild 

 Cat was reduced to the verge of extinction, and even the 

 Polecat showed an ominous uncertainty of tenure. 



Of lesser vermin the slaughter has at all times been great 

 since universal game-preserving became the fashion. On 

 the estates of Langwell and Sandside in Sutherlandshire, in 

 seven years from 1819 to 1826, Carrion Crows and Magpies 

 to the number of 2647 were slain, in addition to 1799 Rooks 

 and Jackdaws; while in three years from 1831 to 1834 on the 

 Duchess of Sutherland's estates in Sutherland, 1739 Carrion 

 Crows and Magpies were destroyed. 



ROOKS AND CHOUGHS 



Some of the lesser vermin are miscreants steeped in 

 crime. The Rook was no less vehemently denounced by the 

 farmer of the fifteenth century than by his successor to-day. 

 Even the Scottish Parliament took up the cudgels against 

 it, and by a curious method sought to keep this thief in 

 check. For seeing that "ruks bigande in kirke yards, 

 orchards, or treis does gret skaithe apone cornis," a statute 

 of 1424, 



ordanyt that thai that sik treis pertenys to, suffer on na wyse that thai birds 

 fle away. And whar it beis tayntit [known] that thai bige and the birds be 

 flowin [flown], and the nests be fundyn [found] in the treis at Beltane, the 

 treis sal be forfaltit [forfeited] to the King. 



A later law, of 1457, also provided for the destruction of 

 Rooks, Crows and other birds of prey which injure corn and 

 game ; and at the present day every country district is 

 familiar with the annual "crow-shoot" whereby an endeavour 

 is made to limit the numbers and destructiveness of the Rook. 

 The Chough also has suffered from the zeal of the 

 vermin-killer. At one time it seems to have been widely 

 distributed even in inland districts. Leslie makes undoubted 

 reference to it, when, as Dalrymple translates his Latin, 

 he says : 



Sche is said to be fund in ane only He, in the sey cost besyde Cornwale 

 foranent [over against] the Realme of France, bot with ws [us] this fowle 

 [Lat. corniculam, little crow] may be seine with neb and feit of purpur 

 hew, nocht only in ane place, that only is thocht to be fund in Cornwale of 

 sum. [The Latin adds, " whence we give it its name," i.e. Cornish Crow.] 



