368 Birds. 



gate in our tuniip-lields, and with their strong bills dig holes into the 

 valuable tubers, which do not long survive this rude treatment ; the 

 Swedish variety seems to be their favourite. The wild oat [Avena 

 fatua), a most obnoxious weed, abounds to an injurious extent in 

 some parts ; it ripens and casts its seeds before the sickle is put to the 

 crop, and these lie in the ground till circumstances are favourable to 

 their germination, and the most careful tillage fails to eradicate them. 

 I am credibly informed that rooks have at times seriously injured fields 

 of young grass, by stocking up the red clover plants to get at these 

 oats ') but I have often seen them thus engaged in fields where the wild 

 oat was unknown ; perhaps they were searching for larvae. Rooks are 

 much addicted to pulling up all the cultivated Cerealia and field- 

 beans, shortly after their appearance above ground. I once observed 

 them do signal injury to a field of wheat, by pulling up the sickly 

 plants, which were suffering from the dreaded ravages of the Chlorops 

 pumilionis, or some allied species. On examining the plants pulled 

 up, I found the larva untouched in its narrow cell, near the neck : I 

 suspect that the rooks expected to have found nohle game at the root 

 of the plant. Though the larva is almost sure to perish when its ni- 

 dus is thus exposed to the vicissitudes of the seasons, still I would 

 gladly dispense with the officious interference of the rook; for though 

 the main stalk of the plant always perishes, yet, under favourable cir- 

 cumstances, fresh plumules spring from the neck of the plant, which 

 in due season clothe the ravaged portions of our fields with a vigor- 

 ous vegetation. When clearing off the last of the turnip-crop in 

 March and April, an immense number of larvae are turned up by the 

 plough. A large fleshy catei-pillar, which often inflicts severe injuries 

 on the bulbs of this valuable crop, and which my kind fiiend Mr. A. 

 White, of the British Museum, informs me belongs to a species of Agro- 

 tis, a root-eating genus of moths, affords them a dainty and abundant 

 fare. At this season the rook renders the farmer valuable service, in 

 searching the oat-fields and overturning clods and bits of turf in quest 

 of wireworms, the larvae of craneflies {Tiptilidis), &c.: and for such 

 labours we cannot feel too grateful. His attacks on the potato-field 

 rouse the whole rural population in arms against him, as all, or at 

 least most, of the farm servants in the county get a piece of potato- 

 ground in part payment of wages : and many maledictions are heaped 

 on his head by the labourer, who has children to provide for as well 

 as the rook, which, once fairly bent on plundering a field, will never 

 cease its attacks till driven away by the gun or rattle of the watch- 

 man, who, if he intermit his vigilance for a time, is sure to have his 



