Birds. 369 



charge invaded. No sooner do the tender leaves appear on the top 

 of the drill, than the rook digs downwards to get at the remains of the 

 set, or the young tubers, as the case may be ; and as the young stalk 

 gains strength, the thief seeks its help to dislodge his prey. The crop 

 is never safe from his ravages until the plants are large and strong, 

 and the roots and tubers are well protected by being earthed up. I 

 do think that rooks must labour under a scarcity of food about the 

 beginning and middle of summer, for they attack stacks with a vora- 

 city very far surpassing that which they display in wintry snow-storms, 

 and that, too, in the most knowing manner. When a stack is stripped 

 of its thatch, the top or peak is the only part where the ears of grain 

 are intentionally exposed ; and it is here that the sagacious birds dig 

 through the thatch and riot in the prize, and by so doing expose the 

 whole structure to the injurious rain. If the coast is dangerous, they 

 carry off an ear or two at a time to some quiet place, returning again 

 and again for a fresh supply. Do rooks prefer potatoes to every other 

 food ? — is a proposition which I beg to offer to out-door naturalists. 

 The data supplied by my own note-book, are too few to enable me to 

 draw a satisfactory conclusion. This season our potato-crop never 

 recovered the effect of the heavy rains which fell between the middle 

 of May and the end of the second week in June, and the fields re- 

 quired to be protected from the rooks until the end of August. Again 

 in October, 1839, just when we had finished carrying the potato-crop, 

 a long succession of wet weather prevented the ploughs from entering 

 the field till the January following ; during all that period a consider- 

 able quantity of gleanings lay exposed on the surface untouched by 

 the rooks, and none were ever seen to alight on the field, which 

 stretches away in front of the farm cottages. In the end of July, 

 when the hay-harvest is finished, the seeds of rye-grass scattered by 

 the side of the largest ricks afforded them a choice supply of food. 

 When the grain begins to ripen in August, they feed on oats and bar- 

 ley with avidity, wheat not being held in such esteem. Their fond- 

 ness for barley is commemorated in a local district : they also partake 

 of carrion at all seasons of the year. On the whole the rook must be 

 numbered amongst the farmer's best friends : it is too true that his 

 ravages at times pull hard upon one's purse-strings, but who can esti- 

 mate the benefits which he confers upon our labours ? In proportion 

 as a true knowledge of our insect foes increases, so much the more 

 will the unjustly maligned rook rise in our estimation. I regret that 

 candour obliges me to say so much against him, whilst at the same 

 time I acknowledge my inability to do justice to his merits. 



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