168 PROJECTED BANISHMENT OF 



thieves, and that they ought to be treated in 

 no other light than that of rogues and vaga- 

 bonds ; wherefore they have now solemnly 

 denounced their former black friends, and they 

 have advised the country gentlemen, as they 

 value their crops, to show no mercy to the 

 rooks, but to kill them whenever an oppor- 

 tunity shall offer* J. M. Hog, Esq., of New- 

 liston, Kirkliston, North Britain, cannot find 

 in his heart to sacrifice his favourites ; and he 

 has written to me, to know what is my opinion 

 of the rook, and he has requested from me a 

 line or two upon the merits or demerits of 

 these birds. He himself entertains a very good 

 opinion of them, and he would not wish to 

 lose their valuable services, by joining in the 

 novel crusade against them ; a crusade, at the 

 best, of a somewhat doubtful nature, as to the 

 good or the evil to be derived from it. 



On the 17th of March, 1844, I returned the 

 answer below to this gentleman's polite com- 

 munication. I place a copy of it in the second 

 volume of Essays, in order that our own farmers 

 may be put upon their guard in time, and thus 

 escape the infection which is now raging in 

 Scotland, and carrying off thousands of the 



