POUCH OF THE ROOK. 



57 



lump under the bill, when the skin in that part is 

 distended with a supply of food. Indeed, you can 

 observe it at a considerable distance, either while 

 the bird is on the ground, or when it is flying across 

 you, on account of its white appearance, contrasted 

 with the sable plumage. On the other hand, the 

 carrion crow, the magpie, the jay, and even the 

 jackdaw, are all birds of ruined character. Their 

 misfortunes make them shy ; and thus you are pre- 

 vented from having much intercourse with them. 

 The gardener and the henwife can never be brought 

 to look upon them with the least appearance of kind 

 feeling ; while the gamekeeper, that cholera morbus 

 to the feathered race, foolishly imagines that he 

 proves his attention to his master's interests, by 

 producing a disgusting exhibition of impaled birds 

 on the kennel walls. Nay, show me, if you can, a 

 young squire, idling from college, who does not try 

 to persuade the keeper that it is his bounden duty 

 to exterminate all manner of owls, ravens, carrion 

 crows, hawks, herons, magpies, jays, daws, wood- 

 peckers, ringdoves, and such like vermin, from his 

 father s estate. With this destroying force to con- 

 tend with, in the shape of keeper, squire, and hen- 

 wife, it is not to be wondered at, that naturalists 

 have so few opportunities of watching individuals of 

 the pie tribe through the entire course of their in- 

 cubation ; which individuals, if persecution did not 

 exist, would be seen in the breeding season, perpe- 

 tually passing to and fro, with their mouths full of 

 food for their young. 



