EEAEING AND PROTECTION. 45 



maimer like mud. However, in all my long experience, I never saw under the 

 trees an eggshell of any game, poultry, or other birds, except the shells of their 

 own which had been hatched out, or tumbled out by stormy winds. I have, however, 

 yearly seen a pair of carrion crows attend to the early rooks' nests, and carry ofE 

 the new-laid eggs, as they did also with pheasants' eggs, the shells of which I have 

 found lying about by scores. It is a curious fact that, numerous as the rooks are, 

 they are such cowards as to aUow the crow to rob them, and only fly round and 

 round, cawing, while the robbery is going on." 



I have 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 in seasons of scarcity, when very hard pressed for food, rooks will destroy 

 pheasants' eggs. 



Colonel J. Whyte, Newtown Manor, SUgo, in reply to Mr. Barnes, writes as 

 follows : " 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 Olonbrock 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 Clonbrock ; 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 would therefore appear that not only do rooks destroy eggs, but that they take 

 to it in a sudden and unaccountable manner. There can be no question here about 

 the work being done by carrion crows, for the only carrion crow in Ireland is the 

 Hoyston or hooded crow.* The reason that Mr. Barnes had no shells under the 

 trees in the 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 rabbit up in his claws several yards, and then 

 •drop it on his approach. This colony of jackdaws is situated in some high cliffs, 

 and are increasing in numbers every year." 



* It is now ascertained that the Carrion and the Eoyston crows are merely varieties of one and the 

 same species, and that they breed together with great freedom. Both varieties occur in Ireland. 



