﻿Beneficial to Agrictdture. 5 



and other wild life of the woods have disappeared. The i*ook is 

 undoubtedly an expert egg-thief, especially as regards the eggs of 

 game and plovers. Although rooks are most useful in destroying 

 great quantities of noxious insects, they destroy a large amount 

 of grain. 



Observations carried out in respect of the food of the rook, 

 and published in the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society of Scotland for the year 1915, show that out of 292 rooks 

 examined, 267 contained cereals in their stomachs, 131 potato, and 

 203 insects ; most were shot during May, many in June, several 

 in April, and others in February, March, July, August, September 

 and November. 



The results of further investigations in connection with the 

 food of this bird, as recorded by Dr. W. E. Collinge in his Manual 

 of Injurious Insects, reveal the fact that by the examination of 

 the stomach-contents of 830 rooks throughout the year 1908-9 in 

 England and Wales, 67*5 per cent, of the food consisted of grain, 

 while with the addition of fruit and roots the percentage was 

 71 per cent. The animal food was only 29 per cent. This is 

 ample evidence to show that with the excessive number of rooks 

 a grain diet is preferred. Under existing conditions the rook is 

 not such a beneficial bird as is usually supposed ; but if very much 

 reduced in number, it would be far more useful, therefore no time 

 should be lost in reducing them, and the same applies to starlings. 

 Both species ought to be reduced to half their present number., 

 which would bring about more normal conditions in respect of 

 their habits and natural food-supply, greatly to the benefit of 

 agriculture generally. 



Jackdaws, jays and magpies are looked upon as injurious from 

 a keeper's point of view, as they consume a certain number of the 

 eggs and young of game-birds. The examination of the stomach- 

 contents of a large number of these birds, which has from time to 

 time been carried out, has proved, however, that all three are 

 distinctly beneficial to the farmer, since the food found consisted 

 invariably of various insects, their larvae and pupae, sheep-ticks, 

 millipedes, slugs, worms, snails, rats and mice. 



Although House-Sparrows do some good during the nesting 

 season by feeding their young upon insects, especially aphides and 

 larvae of some of the common injurious moths and other garden 

 pests, they are one of the most destructive of all birds in gardens, 



