BIRDS FOR STOCK 53 



are in full leaf. Then the young rooks might escape 

 the watchful eye of the keeper were it not for the habit 

 of squawking for food, and for the garrulous chuckling 

 of the parent birds when feeding the hungry mouths. 

 These late broods increase the toll of the eggs and 

 young game birds, parent rooks taking five times as 

 much food as the others. 



Old rooks are very cunning in search of prey. On 

 one excellent partridge-shoot there is a hedge bordered 

 by telegraph poles. It is the only hedge on the place, 

 and in seasons when grass and corn are backward it is 

 packed with partridge nests. The rooks of the neigh- 

 bourhood have learnt the trick of sitting on the tele- 

 graph wires, the better to find the way to the nests, as 

 revealed by the movements of the nesting birds. 

 Thus, waiting and watching in patience, in time they 

 find out every nest in the hedge. 



In February the work begins of catching up pheasants 

 for stocking aviaries, to supply the coming season's 



eggs. In mild Februaries, keeper after 

 Birds keeper tells the same sad story he " can't 

 Stock catch no hens." Many of those caught in 



food-baited traps in mild weather are weak 

 and unsound, and some are injured by shot, and so are 

 not desirable for stock. The birds most capable of 

 producing plenty of fertile eggs and strong chicks are 

 those that scorn to enter a cage, except during hard or 



