The Question of Rooks. G9 



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 beUeve 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 "un- 

 accountable manner. The reason that no shells are to be found 

 under the trees in a 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." 



Mr. Leno, a \ery extensive pheasant breeder, states the 

 case still more forcibly : — " My experience is, that rooks will 

 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 Eiverstown, co. Sligo, writes : " I can 

 confirm the destruction of pheasants' eggs. A few years 

 ago, in a dry spring, with a north-east wind for many weeks, 



