156 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



saltings of the Solway, beating across an estuary morning after 

 morning in the teeth of a head wind, and despite the interest 

 which attaches to every stage of its domesticity, candour 

 compels me to confess that the Rook is far too numerous in every 

 part of Lakeland ; so numerous as to inflict grave losses on the 

 long-suffering farmers, and to interfere seriously with the 

 interests of sportsmen. Its injurious character has long been 

 recognised. As early, at any rate, as 1620, the Rook was 

 wisely proscribed at Naworth. An entry occurs in the * Extra- 

 ordinary Paiments ' of that year : ' For killing xv crowes, xv d., 

 and for powder, ixd.' (The Rook is commonly known as the 

 1 Crow ' in Lakeland, the Carrion Crow being distinguished as 

 the ' Dope ' or ' Corbie '.) Such action has often been repeated. 

 For instance, in 1807 the farmers of the Penrith district 

 clubbed together to pay a reward of twopence for the head of 

 every Rook that should be brought to them, in order to protect 

 their turnips and seed crops. 1 



RAVEN. 



Gorvus corax, L. 



The Raven has long been identified in the public mind with 

 some of the finest precipices in Lakeland. Wordsworth, among 

 other writers, has placed on record a brief ' word picture ' of 

 this bird as seen at Ulleswater: 'Friday, November 9th [1805]. 

 A raven was seen aloft ; not hovering like the kite, for that is 

 not the habit of the bird ; but passing onward with a straight- 

 forward perseverance, and timing the motion of its wings to its 

 own croaking. The waters were agitated ; and the iron tone of 

 the raven's voice, which strikes upon the ear at all times as the 

 more dolorous from its regularity, was in fine keeping with the 

 wild scene before our eyes. This carnivorous fowl is a great 

 enemy to the lambs of these solitudes. I recollect frequently 

 seeing, when a boy, bunches of unfledged ravens suspended from 



the churchyard of H , for which a reward of so much a 



head was given to the adventurous destroyer.' 2 Reflecting that 



1 Carlisle Journal, Dec. 26, 1807. 



- Description of the Scenery of the Lakes, p. 122. 



