THE ROOKS FROM SCOTLAND. 173 



having banished the grakles (their rooks), the 

 insects ate up the whole of their grass ; and the 

 people were obliged to get their stock of hay 

 from Pennsylvania and from England: and 

 in the island of Bourbon, the poor Eastern 

 grakles disappeared under a similar persecution. 

 The islanders suffered in their turn, for clouds 

 of grasshoppers consumed every green blade ; 

 and the colonists were compelled to apply to 

 Government for a fresh breed of grakles, and 

 also for a law to protect them. 



" Thus, it appears from history that the sages 

 of the East, and the wise men of the West, 

 did wrong in destroying their grakles. They 

 were severely punished for their temerity, by 

 the loss of their crops. They repented, and 

 repaired the damage ; and, so far as I can 

 learn, things have gone on well betwixt them- 

 selves and the grakles, and betwixt the grakles 

 and their crops, ever since. In 1824, 1 saw 

 immense flocks of these birds in the low mea- 

 dows of the Delaware. 



" History, by the way, in our own species, 

 presents a parallel to the war of extermination 

 now raging against the rooks in Scotland. 

 When Voltaire and his impious sophisters had 



