572 A Plea for the Rooks. 



great satisfaction.' To prove their utility on other occasions, two 

 or three quotations from the Magazine of Natural History, among 

 many others, will suffice : ' A flight of locusts visited Craven, and 

 they were so numerous as to create considerable alarm among 

 the farmers of the district. They were, however, soon relieved 

 from their anxiety, for the Rooks flocked in from all quarters by 

 thousands and tens of thousands, and devoured them so greedily 

 that they were all destroyed in a short time.' Again, ' It was stated 

 a few years ago, that there was such an enormous quantity of 

 caterpillars upon Skiddaw, that they devoured all the vegetation 

 on the mountain; and people were apprehensive they would 

 attack the crops in the enclosed lands ; but the Rooks, which are 

 fond of high ground in summer, having discovered them, in a very 

 short time put a stop to their ravages.' I have not yet done with 

 my authorities. Jesse, in the second volume of his ' Gleanings 

 in Natural History,' makes the following remark on this subject : 

 ' In order to be convinced that these birds are beneficial to the 

 farmer, let him observe the same field in which his ploughman and 

 his sower are at work ; he will see the former followed by a train 

 of Rooks, while the sower will be unattended, and his grain remain 

 untouched.' Bishop Stanley, in his charming ' Familiar History 

 of Birds,'* writes : ' We feel quite certain, that notwithstanding the 

 depredations which may fairly be laid to their account, on striking 

 a fair balance, the advantage will be in favour of preserving the 

 Rooks, and that, if every nest were pulled to pieces, the farmers 

 would soon do all in their power to induce the old birds to rebuild 

 them, finding out, when too late, of what immense service they 

 are, in destroying those large white grubs of beetles which, living 

 underground no less than from three to four years, devour incess- 

 antly the tender roots of grasses and every description of grain ;' 

 and again the Bishop says, ' It is scarcely necessary to name the 

 wireworm as one of the greatest scourges to which the farmers 

 are exposed, and yet it is to the Rook chiefly, if not entirely, 

 that they can look for a remedy. Cased in its hard shelly coat, it 

 eats its way into the heart of the roots of corn, and is beyond the 

 * Stanley on Birds, i. 249. 



