TEESIDENTIAL ADDKESS. 415 



birds of the Hawk tribe Rooks have become too numerous 

 in the county, but, as a correspondent of mine puts it, a good 

 deal of nonsense is talked about the damage they do. As is 

 well known their food consists mainly of larvae, insects, grubs, 

 and worms, but they will and do eat turnips, potatoes, and 

 other farm and garden produce occasionally, i.e., when they are 

 either too numerous or when their proper food is not forth- 

 coming. Whether their numbers exceed reasonable limits is 

 more a question for agriculturists than ornithologists, but I 

 suppose their most inveterate enemy will not deny that the 

 Eooks work incalculable good in destroying the vermin that 

 would otherwise ruin the crops in certain places. It is well 

 known to every schoolboy that, given a field which is being 

 ploughed and another that is being sown, they will follow the 

 plough and blacken the ground behind it ; but then the farmer 

 turns round and tells us there are no grubs on well-drained 

 high- class lands, and that they belong to outlying districts 

 imperfectly cultivated. 



Mr. James Hardy, the Secretary of the Berwickshire Club, 

 tells me that wire-worms come from old grass lands, that they 

 have little chance to live on arable land under regular rotation 

 of crops, and that Eooks prefer newly-sprouted grain to any 

 kind of food. Mr. Hardy also asserts that the Eooks will leave 

 all the freshly -ploughed fields round about to obtain this 

 favourite morsel ; but, he adds sententiously , ' ' one would not 

 like them destroyed, nor will they be, because they find out 

 refuge when they are persecuted." 



The result of what has been termed the ' ' Eook-murder in 

 North Northumberland" is already becoming apparent. A 

 number of the birds have taken their departure from the main- 

 land, and have sought sanctuary on Holy Island, where, I am 

 informed by Mr. Adam Martin, they have built nests on a small 

 clump of low trees, or rather bushes, at the Lough ; indeed, so 

 low down are some of the nests that anyone may put in his 

 hand. Two years ago a pair of Jackdaws built their nest in 

 the old abbey, and I am glad to say that the birds now number 

 four or five pairs. This is the first time that Eooks have been 



