PROJECTED BANISHMENT OF ROOKS. 167 



ON THE PROJECTED BANISHMENT OF THE 

 ROOKS FROM SCOTLAND. 



" Bella manu, lethumque gerat furialis Erinnys." 



The devil of discord, with an imp or two of his 

 own family, seems to have been let loose upon 

 this once unanimous nation. We have Peel 

 and Repeal, Corn and Cobden, Buxton and 

 Blackey, Kirk and Calvin, Pusey and Pro- 

 testantism, all armed with pike and javelin; 

 whilst poor old Mr. Bull, out at the elbows, 

 and with scarcely a shoe to his foot, has got 

 souse into debt, to the tune of eight hundred 

 millions, and sees at last, with horror, that he 

 is only just one single step from his palace to 

 the poorhouse. In this boisterous and jarring 

 state of things, Scotland, by way of pastime, 

 has just commenced hostilities against that 

 gregarious tribe of birds commonly known by 

 the name of rooks. 



In the nineteenth century, fruitful epoch of 

 discovery, the Scottish farmers have found out 

 that the rooks, so much prized by their ances- 

 tors, are a set of pilfering and plundering 



M 4 



