68 PHEASANTS FOR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



I tave known many cases where pheasants have sat, 

 and reared their young safely almost immediately under 

 a rookery. On the other hand, there is no doubt but 

 that, when pressed for food, or where they once acquire 

 the -habit, rooks will destroy pheasants' eggs in large 

 numbers. 



Colonel J. Whyte, Newtown Manor, Sligo, writes as 

 follows respecting the rook : " There appears some doubt 

 whether rooks suck pheasants' eggs, or whether the carrion 

 crow is not the real depredator. Perhaps what follows may 

 set the question at rest. About four years since. Lord 

 Clonbrock asked me if I had ever known rooks eat the eggs 

 of pheasants. My idea was that they might do so occasionally^ 

 but not as a custom. His lordship replied : 'The rooks about 

 me have within the last year or two taken to hunt up and 

 destroy the eggs as regularly as if they were so many magpies. 

 I did not believe my keeper at first, but, going myself to look 

 out, I saw them regularly beating up and down a piece of 

 rough ground where the pheasants nest, and when they found 

 one they would rise up a few yards in the air and then pounce 

 down On it.' Lord Dunsandle's place is within fifteen or 

 sixteen miles of Lord Clonbroek ; there are three rookeries in 

 it, and the first question I asked the keeper on my arrival 

 there to shoot was, 'Do the rooks suck or damage the 

 pheasants' eggs ? ' The answer was, 'No;' nor did they do 

 so till this year. But about a week ago I received from Lord 

 Dunsandle a letter, in which he said, ' This year the rooks 

 have taken' to destroying my pheasants' eggs, and the 

 mischief they have done is incredible ; the fields are strewn 

 with broken eggs.' It woald therefore appear that not only . 

 do rooks destroy eggs, but that they take to it in a sudden 

 and ' unaccountable manner. The reason that no shells 

 are to be found under the trees in a rookery is, that the 

 rook breaks and eats the eggs on the spot. Jackdaws will 

 eat eggs whenever they can find them, and my keeper 

 assures me that a short time since he saw one take a little 



