74 PHEASANTS FoR COVERTS AND AVIARIES. 



the ucxt morning- being that tlie es'gs that had liecn left and 

 not col](.'eted i'nr hatching umh'r liens had }>fru de>troyed by 

 them, and during' the season many hundreds ni eggs were 

 thus lost betnre they cnuld lie i/ollected by the keepers. 

 Since then the rooks liave lieen kejtt in check. 



Tlie gi'eat increase in the number of rooks throughout the 

 cimntr\- in tlie fii'st decaile nl the twentietVi (.'eiitury, coupled 

 with the fact that when pressed Ijy hnnger, as in the case of 

 a drijught, they take t(j egg stealing and other depredations, 

 has caused them to become formidable enemies of the game 

 preserver. 



C'ri.iws are even nnire destructive than runks. As an 

 instance of their evil inllueiice, I niav quote fnuii Mr. (Jgihie 

 Grant's work on "Game Birds." .Mr. (irant writes as follows: 

 "I was ]iasMng tluNjugh a, Sretch iir jilantatinn furuiing part 

 of a large estate in the North of Scotland udiere tiiousands 

 of pliea^.ants are annnally reared and turned down. The 

 ])lantatii)n ran along about a, hundred feet abovi.' the rocky 

 sea-coastj a,nd as we ad\'anced along the slipjiery ]iath, we 

 found several sucked pheasants' eggs, evidently the work of 

 crows; iidi- liad we gone far before we came snddeiilv upon a 

 wln.ile family of hooded rascals, fi\'e young and two old birds. 

 In the t'imrse of about a (piarter of a mile we counted over a 

 hundred empty shells wlindi had cx'ii.lently Ijceii carried to the 

 piath and there devoured. How imuiy more might ha^'e been 

 discovered Uad we searched it is impossible to sav, but we 

 saw ample evidence of tlie wlmh'sale destruction \\hich a 

 famil\' oi: i-rows is capalde of committing among pheasants' 

 eggs." 



The moorhen, watcrhen, or common gallinule, is 

 occasionally destructi\"e to young pheasants. Mr. Gould 

 recounted the evidence in " The Jbrds of (Ireat Britaan,'' and 

 Mr. 11. .). I'artridge, of Hockham Hall, Thetford, writing to 

 the Zni,ln,ii'st, stated that "At the beginning of -lulv, the 

 kee]icr liaving lost several ]iliea>ants about three weeks old 

 from a copse, and having set traps m vain for winged and 



