BOOKS IN PHEASANT COVERTS. 65 



or liorizontally should never be used, as danger to human 

 life always accompanies their employment. It is almost 

 unnecessary to remark that alarm guns of various foriis can 

 be purchased at any gunmakers. 



The destruction effected in preserves during the nesting 

 season by crows, jackdaws, magpies, jays, and other egg- 

 eating birds, is well known, and can only be remedied by the 

 trapping or shooting of the culprits. The question as to the 

 influence of the rook in pheasant coverts is one of those 

 respecting which there is much to be said on both sides. The 

 rook is so very valuable an ally to the agriculturist, by 

 destroying an enormous number of grubs, wire worms, &c., 

 that its case claims our most attentive consideration. In 

 reply to the accusation that rooks occasionally destroy the 

 eggs of the pheasant, Mr. James Barnes writes : " According 

 to my own observations of above fifty years, the rook will eat 

 eggs if placed about in open country pastures, &c., but I 

 believe never goes on foraging excursions for eggs or young 

 game, as the carrion crow does. Rooks will not only knock 

 eggs to pieces openly placed in sight of their feeding gTomnds, 

 but they will also, in hard frosty weather, devour many other 

 things, such as slaughter-house garbage, or dead poultry, game, 

 or fish that may lie about decomposing within their reach. My 

 own observation is, that the rook is a real friend to the 

 pheasant, and provides it with a deal of food at an acceptable 

 season. In the years 1816 and J 817, I went with others to see 

 the young rooks shot in Lord Middleton's park, Peper Harrow, 

 Godalming, Surrey. The trees were high in an inclosure, but 

 not at that time very thick on the ground, for there was some 

 scrubby undergrowth and a rare crop of rank weeds — the 

 open spaces were splashed as if whitewashed, as the under- 

 growth of all rookeries is during the first two or three weeks 

 of May. Amongst this undergrowth there were two or three 

 pheasants' nests, protected with boughs; and strict orders 

 were given that no one should disturb the pheasants' nests. 

 I thought but little of this at the time; but afterwards I 



