CURRENT LITERATURE 27 
CURRENT LITERATURE. 
SOME AGRICULTURAL PEsts.—Under this title there has been 
published by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland a 12-page leaflet 
which groups some of the more destructive of Scottish pests into 
two classes—serious and general pests, and local or occasional pests. 
Amongst the former are included foxes, red squirrels, wood- 
pigeons, and house-sparrows; amongst the latter, brown and blue 
hares, rooks, gulls, blackbirds, thrushes, and starlings. Particulars 
are given of the economic significance of and methods of destroying 
these pests. The pamphlet may be obtained free on application to 
the Secretary of the Board. 
BLACK-WINGED STILT IN WIGTOWNSHIRE.—On 17th October 1920 
Mr M. Portal observed a Black-winged Stilt (Wzmantopus himantopus) 
on the shore of Loch Ryan, Wigtownshire. It was an adult bird with 
pure white head and neck (British Birds, December 1920, xiv., p. 164). 
[The species here recorded has been found with certainty only some 
eight times in Scotland, and two of the records were made so long ago 
as 1684 by Sir Robert Sibbald, who mentions two individuals observed 
near Dumfries.—EDSs. ] 
FOOD OF THE ROOK.—Much attention has already been paid to the 
food of the Rook, and Dr W. E. Collinge returns to the subject in the 
Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture for December 1920. He has 
calculated that 10,000 Rooks will consume ina year about 232 tons of 
food, and that in so doing “they destroy about 80 tons of cereals, 32 
tons of potatoes and roots, 74 tons of beneficial insects, and 65 tons of 
injurious insects, slugs, snails, etc.” The crux of the matter, however, 
lies in the answer to be given to the query, “Supposing these rooks 
had not destroyed this great bulk of injurious insects, would these latter 
not have done as much harm to cereals, roots, etc., as the rooks did ?” 
Dr Collinge gives his opinion in the negative: ‘We think not, as a 
considerable percentage would have been eaten by Starlings, Jackdaws, 
and Black-headed Gulls.” Now, although one side of the matter has 
been statistically examined, the other has not, and it would seem to be 
desirable that something definite should be known as to the damage 
likely to be done to crops by 65 tons of injurious insects and molluscs, 
before any safe answer can be hazarded to the crucial question. 
PHEASANTS AND “ LEATHER-JACKETS.”—The Field, 25th December 
1920, reproduces a striking photograph of the contents of a pheasant’s 
crop, regarding which a correspondent remarks: “The photograph 
shows the bulk of 1083 leather-jackets ; these were all taken from the 
crop of one pheasant. The bird was found ‘trespassing’ upon some 
market gardens near Ackfield, Sussex, and was shot.” 
