94 THE BIRDS OF DEVOX. 



have thought that we couhl detect a meaning in the variously inflected 

 cuAVS with which the young in the nests are chided or encouraged, the 

 partners returning with food are saluted, a lazy thief who would pilfer 

 sticks from other nests rather than seek them for himself is objurgated, 

 and the general aff'airs of rookdom are discussed. There are manv, we 

 know, who look upon the Eook as an unmitigated nuisance, as a thief and 

 robber at the very best, and who would not grieve if he were altogether 

 exterminated ; but we should regard it as a sad day if he was to be 

 removed from the landscape in which he is so interesting an object, and there 

 are numerous arguments at hand in favour of his preservation. Chief of 

 these is the vast service he renders agriculturists in clearing their fields 

 of "■ v^ircvi'orms" {lavvvcoi Elateridce or click- beetles), "leather-jackets" 

 (larva? of TIpithe or daddy long-legs), and the even more destructive grubs 

 ot the cockchafer, which feed on the roots of grass ; and the overwhehning 

 fact that where the Eook has been destroyed he has been reimported, as 

 it was discovered that the crops could not grow without him. If he does 

 occasionally pilfer the potato-grounds and the newly sown wheat, yet he 

 may be easily warned off, and any little injury he does is a thousand-fold 

 counterbalanced by the benefits to which we have referred above. 



The Hook is more or less omnivorous ; and in their season walnuts and 

 nuts of various kinds, apj)les, pears, fruits, and berries, as well as carrion, 

 meet with his attention ; and he is not free from suspicion of occasionally 

 adding eggs and young birds to his vutiu, and even young rabbits. He 

 also feeds on mice and young rats, and sand-eels on the sea-shoi-e, and 

 shell-fish. Young Rooks are extremely fond of cockchafers, and may be 

 seen picking these beetles ott' from the trees soon after they have flown from 

 their nests in [May. In October flocks of Rooks visit walnut-trees, pluck- 

 ing the nuts ott' the branches, and the acorns off evergreen oaks. AVhilst 

 the young are in the nest the old birds principally feed them on newly sown 

 grain, as may bo seen by the castings under their nesting-trees consisting 

 entirely of the husks of the grain ; in autumn after harvest they pick up 

 much grain from the stubble-fields, and in winter may often be seen pulling 

 the ears out of wheat-stacks. They often seek for food on the ooze of 

 the estuaries and sea-shore with the Gulls, and boatmen by the seaside 

 consider this a sign of bad weather coming. Mr. Henry jS^icholls saw a 

 Rook on Thurlestone sands during very cold weather seize a Thrush and 

 tear it, and then fly off with it in its claws ; and during the cold spell of 

 December IS'JO and January 1891 we ourselves saw a Rook pegging 

 away at a dead Thrush, which was frozen quite hard, returning to it for 

 several days, until all the flesh &c. had been devoured. V>e have seen a 

 Rook hovering over the Exe at Exeter and picking up floating substances 

 from the water. This habit has been observed by Mr. Gatcombe also 

 (Zool. 1873, p. 3393). 



The Rook is at all times an interesting bird to watch ; one of the 

 common objects of country-life ; and may he long continue such ! See 

 him on a wet day when the whole landscape is blotted out by the clouds 

 and the rain is pouring down hopelessly ; lie then sits, with his tail droop- 

 ing down, on the hedge-row elms the picture of patient misery. But how 



