140 



A Pica for the Books. 



their anxiety, for the rooks flocked in from all quarters by thousands 

 and tens cf thousands, and devoured them so greedily that they 

 were all destn^ed in a short time." Again, " It was stated a few 

 years ago, that there was such an enormous quantity of caterpillars 

 upon Skiddaw, that they devoured all the vegetation on the moun- 

 tain ; and people were apprehensive they would attack the crops 

 in the enclosed lands ; but the rooks, which are fond of high 

 ground in summer, having discovered them, in a very short time 

 put a stop to their ravages." I have not yet done with my authori- 

 ties. Jesse, in the second volume of his Gleanings in Natural 

 History, makes the following remark on this subject : "In order 

 to be convinced that these birds are beneficial to the farmer, let 

 him observe the same field in which his ploughman and his sower 

 are at work : he will see the former followed by a train of rooks, 

 while the sower will be unattended, and his grain remain untouched." 

 Bishop Stanley in his charming Familiar Ilistory of Birds, 1 writes, 

 "We feel quite certain, that notwithstanding the depredations 

 which may fairly be laid to their account, on striking a fair balance, 

 the advantage will be in favour of preserving the rooks, and that, 

 if every nest were pulled to pieces, the farmers would soon do all 

 in their power to induce the old birds to rebuild them, finding out, 

 when too late, of what immense service they are, in destroying 

 those large white grubs of beetles, which living underground no 

 less than from three to four j'ears, devour incessantly the tender 

 roots of grasses and every description of grain : " and again the 

 Bishop says, "It is scarcely necessary to name the wireworm as 

 one of the greatest scourges to which the farmers are exposed, and 

 yet it is to the rook chiefly, if not entirely, that they can look for 

 a remedy. Cased in its hard shelly coat, it eats its way into the 

 heart of the roots of corn, and is beyond the reach of weather, or 

 the attacks of other insects, or small birds, whose shorter and softer 

 bills cannot penetrate the recesses of its secure retreat, buried some 

 inches below the soil : the rook alone can do so; if watched when 

 seen feeding in a field of sprouting wheat, the heedless observer 

 will abuse him when he sees him jerking up root after root of the 



1 Stanley on Birds, i., 249, 



