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By the Rev. A. C. Smith, M.A. 



Read before the Society during the Annual Meeting at Malmesbury, August, 1862. 



j|^pT is hard to fight against the prejudices of mankind, but 

 ftsUlfj inasmuch as in some districts of Wiltshire, not content 

 with the annual ruthless slaughter of the newly fledged brood, 

 some have thought fit to begin a war of extermination, by wholesale 

 poisoning and otherwise, against the whole family of rooks, it is 

 time for the friends of those ill-starred birds to expostulate, and 

 point out the suicidal policy of those short-sighted men, who under 

 a mistaken notion of their true character, are destroying some of 

 the best friends the farmer has. 



It would be fair, in the first place, to bespeak in behalf of this 

 persecuted tribe, the goodwill of all who love country life, by calling 

 to mind the cheery note, so eloquent of lengthening days, and 

 advancing spring, which charms the ear of those who live near a 

 rookery; or by pointing out the animation which all Nature 

 derives from their presence, and the sad blank which would exist 

 in our meadows and fields, in the event of their destruction : but 

 as we may fairly conjecture that such pleas border too much on 

 the romantic to weigh with such matter of fact minds as those of 

 their would-be- destroyers, I will waive all such considerations, and 

 rest my cause on their substantial merits alone. 



I begin by stating at the outset that it is not at all my intention 

 to endeavour to prove my protegees perfectly harmless and 

 immaculate, because I am well aware that a certain amount of 

 mischief is occasioned by them, and I have no wish to slur over 

 their bad qualities, and magnify their virtues; convinced as I am 

 that such a proceeding would be fatal to my favorites, and that no 

 good purpose is ever answered by too violent partisanship. More- 

 over I am so confident of the strength of my case, that I desire 



VOL. VIII. NO. XXIII. M 



