ROOK. 95 



their operations, I have found many heads of plantains, the 

 little autumnal dandelions, 'and other plants, drawn out of 

 the ground, and scattered about, their roots having been 

 eaten off by a grub, leaving only a crown of leaves upon 

 the surface." It may readily be supposed that extensive 

 injury at the root of a plant cannot exist long without 

 some alteration in the appearance of the leaves, or other 

 parts, above ground, and the Books seem to have learned 

 by experience how to select those plants which are the 

 most likely to afford them some recompence for the trouble 

 they take in grubbing them up. Mr. Jesse, in his instruc- 

 tive Gleanings, says, " A gentleman once showed me a 

 field which had all the appearance of having been scorched, 

 as if by a burning sun in dry hot weather. The turf 

 peeled from the ground as if it had been cut with a turfing- 

 spade, and we then discovered that the roots of the grass 

 had been eaten away by the larvae of the cock-chaffer, 

 which were found in countless numbers at various depths 

 in the soil. This field was visited by a great quantity of 

 Books, though there was no rookery within many miles of 

 the neighbourhood, who turned up, and appeared to devour 

 the grubs with great satisfaction." To prove their utility 

 on other occasions, two or three quotations from the Maga- 

 zine of Natural History, among many others, will suffice. 

 A flight of locusts visited Craven, and they were so nume- 

 rous 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. 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 



