70 Protection in Covert. 



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." 



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

 month of April, about the 14th or 15th, he saw a rook in the 

 act of carrying off a pheasant's egg from a copse in AVest 

 Sussex. The bird was carrying the egg upon the point of the 

 bill, and on being fired at he dropped it. 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 conduct regarding the eggs of pheasants appears 

 to show that, when hard pressed for food, rooks will even 

 destroy not only eggs but also the young birds. A correspon- 

 dent 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 full 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 

 of other food, but have never known a raid of this description. 

 I attribute it to the excessive drought, which has so starved 



