96 CORVIOffl. 



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. 



The attempts occasionally made by man to interfere with 

 the balance of powers as arranged and sustained by Nature 

 are seldom successful. " An extensive experiment appears 

 to have been made in some of the agricultural districts on 

 the Continent, the result of which has been the opinion 

 that farmers do wrong in destroying Rooks, Jays, Spar- 

 rows, and, indeed, birds in general, on their farms, par- 

 ticularly where there are orchards. In our own country, 

 on some very large farms in Devonshire, the proprietors 

 determined, a few summers ago, to try the result of offer- 

 ing a great reward for the heads of Rooks ; but the issue 

 proved destructive to the farms, for nearly the whole of 

 the crops failed for three successive years, and they have 

 since been forced to import Rooks, and other birds, to 

 restock their farms with." A similar experiment was 

 made a few years ago in a northern county, particularly in 

 reference to Rooks, but with no better success ; the far- 

 mers were obliged to reinstate the Rooks to save their 

 crops. The subject was facetiously commented upon in a 

 pamphlet by James Stuart Menteath, Esq., of Closeburn. 



Mr. Jesse, in the second volume of his Gleanings in Na- 

 tural 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." 



The food of the Rook, as already shown, consists prin- 

 cipally of worms and various sorts of insects, which, from 



