5i 



grain ; this is abundantly proved by the number of 

 Rooks that are annually destroyed by feeding upon 

 newly-sown wheat steeped in poisonous compounds to 

 preserve it from the attacks of insects. 



The Rook is an eminently sagacious and observant 

 bird, and, whether he has learned of late years by infor- 

 mation from other members of the genus Coi'viis, or 

 acquired by intuition, the knowledge that the eggs of 

 other birds are excellent food, I am unable to say, but, 

 well within my recollection, our Rooks have become 

 most determined egg-stealers, and it is no exaggeration 

 to say that, in dry spring-times, when covert is scanty, 

 we are annually robbed of hundreds of eggs of game- 

 birds and wild-fowl by these otherwise comparatively 

 respectable neighbours. This branch of petty larceny 

 on the part of the Rooks was virtually unknown in our 

 neighbourhood forty years ago, though we liad many 

 more Rooks breeding therein than at present. After all 

 this, I am fond of the Rook, from old associations of 

 happy summers gone by, and from long and close 

 observation of its pecuhar habits, but in a woodland 

 and agricultural district I am convinced that an annual 

 pretty close thinning down of the yonng birds by fair 

 means is an absolute necessity in the interests of all 

 classes of the human community. I could relate many 

 other facts to the advantage, and a few to the prejudice, 

 of the Rook, but the question of the preservation or 

 destruction of the bird chiefly touches our unfortunate 

 agriculturists, who, as a rule, are not disposed to neglect 

 their own interests. I conclude by quoting from my 

 article on the Rook, contributed to the * Northampton- 



