ROOKS IN PHEASANT COVEBTS. 67 



till 3 a.m., I have heard the pellet drop, and have had them 

 fall on my head and shoulders, and picked them up by the 

 light of the moon or lantern. The rook's excreta are at this 

 time pretty solid. As the month of March is nearly ended 

 this alters; and in April, when the corn is sprouted and 

 growing, the ejecta are like sloppy mud, and contain the 

 husks of a few grains of corn, wings of beetles, pieces of 

 snail shells, lime, and grit. Prom this time till June no 

 pellets or quids are to be seen ; the droppings are loose, and 

 like whitewash over the vegetation underneath. Insect food 

 gets so various and abundant that they and their broods 

 seem to entirely subsist on it for six or eight weeks, and the 

 young thrive and grow fat wonderfully quick in showery, 

 growing weather of April and beginning of May. The young 

 that are spared from the gunners, as soon as they can fly, are 

 enticed away early in the morning by their parents, at first 

 by short flights, to the fields then preparing for turnip sowing, 

 or the pasture that produces cockchafers, fern beetles, and 

 other insects, and for a few nights roost on trees near their 

 work. After they get strong on the wing, and good flyers, 

 they all come back to their native home, the rookery. As 

 soon as a field of early podded peas is pretty full, the rook, if 

 not looked after, will take toll ; also of wheat or barley they 

 will certainly, if an opportunity is afforded them, filch a 

 portion, particularly such as is near trees or has been laid by 

 wind or wet. Then, again, commences the real pellet-ejecting 

 season. The rook then hurries to the unguarded field to filch 

 corn, which he stores in his pouch as quickly as possible, 

 picking up also on the pasture and turnip fields, &c., 

 quantities of grubs, snails, slugs, beetles, earwigs, grass- 

 hoppers, crickets, fern flies, various other insects, and their 

 larvae. It is truly astonishing to see, as I have done for 

 years, on examining those ejected pellets, what variety at 

 times they contain — besides remains of every kind of creeping, 

 running, or flying insect that may chance to come in their 

 way, in the season of ripening of seeds on the pastures a 



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