Treatment for Rooks. 333 



about four shillings ; this is wound off into balls rather larger 

 than a cricket-ball. I cut then a number of sticks about 

 half-an-inch in diameter and two feet long ; these are stuck 

 in the ground by the side of the corn, and about fifteen . 

 yards apart. I then run down by this row of sticks, paying 

 the cotton out as I go, and tying it with a double knot at 

 each stick, and about a foot from the ground. No rooks 

 will ever pull ears of corn over or under this barrier. To 

 string a hundred and fifty acres of corn round in this 

 manner is only a summer's evening amusement for two 

 persons — one to carry and stick in the sticks, and the other 

 to follow and fasten on the cotton. Where this, or the 

 gun, has been neglected, I have known a large flock of 

 rooks to carry away and spoil five pounds' worth of corn in 

 a single day ! By adopting the simple means I advise, 

 rooks are driven to search behind the ploughs and in pas- 

 tures for their favourite and legitimate food. Although 

 perhaps the most useful- of British birds, it was quite right 

 not to include it in the schedule of " wild birds " for pro- 

 tection ; we could scarcely have done away with our social 

 meeting once a year for rook-shooting, or the cold rook-pie 

 as an after-luxury. I have never known a rookery decrease 

 where the young rooks have been annually shot at, provided 

 the birds are not persecuted more than one evening." 



A good authority says : " Rooks intermarry every year, 

 chiefly amongst the occupants of adjacent rookeries. If a 

 male should be so bold as to bring home to his rookery a 

 bride from a distance, the other rooks would not receive 

 her, and would force the pair to build some way off. In 

 the neighburhood of the big rookeries outlying nests of this 

 kind can always be found." 



