46 MANAGEMENT OF PHEASANTS IN PEESEEVES. 



Mr. Leno, a very extensire pheasant breeder, states the case still more 

 forcibly : — " My experience is, that rooks wiU destroy pheasants' eggs whenever 

 they happen to find them out. In one week a rook came twice and settled down 

 in my pheasantry, and took an egg away each time : and where rooks abound, if 

 perchance a pheasant's or partridge's nest is left by the mowers, the rooks may be 

 seen crowding around the patch of grass left for shelter, and the eggs are finished 

 in quick time. It is useless to leave a nest exposed in the neighbourhood of rooks, 

 as they are sure to eat them." 



Mr. Harman, of Riverstown, co. SHgo, writes : " I am unwilling to bring 

 in a case against that useful bird the rook, but I can confirm the destruction of 

 pheasants' eggs. A few years ago, in a dry spring, with a north-east wind for many 

 weeks, when the rooks could not bore for their accustomed food, about one hundred 

 and fifty pheasants' eggs — i.e., the shells — were found under the rookery near the 

 house, having been taken by the rooks to feed their young, other food failing them. I 

 have caught them when baiting traps with eggs for magpies ; but still I consider 

 the rook (barring these serious misdemeanours) a most useful bird." 



Mr. J. E. Harting informs me that on one occasion, in the month of April, 

 about the Mth or 15th, he saw a rook in the act of carrying off a pheasant's egg 

 from a copse. The bird was carrying the egg upon the point of the biU, and on 

 being fired at he dropped it, and when picked up it was found to be empty, 

 although still wet inside. There was a large and irregularly- shaped hole towards 

 the larger end. On the very ground where this occurred, my informant had heard 

 the keeper say that he had on more than one occasion shot rooks in the act of 

 carrying off pheasants' eggs. 



The balance of the evidence for and against the rook in respect of its conduct 

 regarding the eggs of pheasants, appears to show that, saving in seasons of an 

 exceptional character, or in cases where the eggs are left exposed by mowing, 

 the influence of the bird is not seriously antagonistic to the rearing of pheasants; 

 but when hard pressed for food, rooks will even destroy the young birds. A 

 correspondent writes as follows : — " On June 13 my keeper observed about half a 

 dozen rooks engaged amongst the coops of young pheasants, and, suspecting their 

 object, drove them off. The next morning, having fed and watered the young birds, 

 he went to his cottage, and, looking out about six o'clock, saw a strong detachment 

 of rooks from a neighbouring colony in great excitement amongst the coops. He 

 ran down, a distance of two hundred yards, as fast as possible, but before he arrived 

 they had succeeded in killing, and for the most part carrying off, from forty to 

 fifty birds, two or three weeks old. As he came amongst them they flew up in 

 all directions, their beaks fuU of the spoil. The dead birds not carried away had all 

 of their heads pulled off, and most of their legs and wings torn from the body. I 

 have long known that rooks destroy partridges' nests and eat the eggs when short 



