THE HOOK. 
315 
tation of the field, and keep them within due bounds. Both 
England and the continent furnish instances of the almost total 
destruction of crops in particular districts, consequent on its ex- 
tirpation. 
The good done by this bird is generally admitted by the authors 
who have written within the last sixty years, greatly to exceed the 
evil it commits. Sir Wm. Jardine speaks of the good, as “ at least 
compensating for their destruction or injury to the produce of the 
fields.” It may be possible, that in particular localities the “ Dr.” 
and “ Cr.” account will about balance. A gentleman whose ex- 
tensive farm is situated in the valley of the Lagan, and little more 
than a mile distant from three extensive rookeries, (his place 
forming, as it were, the centre of the circle,) once remarked to me, 
he would rather than ten pounds a year, that rooks never 
alighted on his fields. His charges against them comprise about 
the sum total of the evil propensities of the species : that, “ when 
the blade of wheat just shows itself above the ground, or the 
pickle of grain is by frost, or otherwise, rendered accessible, these 
birds pick it off at daybreak ; when grain is lodged, they utterly 
destroy it, and when in stooks, do serious damage, not only by 
eating the pickles, but by carrying away heads of the grain, which 
are found scattered about the adjacent fields. They injure the 
potato crop, by picking up the planted f sets , in spring, 
and in autumn, the young potatoes. This is only done where 
the crop is thin and poor, as from such bare spots, they 
can have a look-out against approaching enemies; where the 
foliage is luxuriant, they never alight. They sometimes, too, 
attack the cherries in the garden.” * The only good attributed 
to them is their “ picking the grubs off lay ground, when broken 
up and harrowed.” That where very numerous, they do much 
of the harm here alleged, is undoubted ; but to prove they 
do much more good than is imagined, I requested to be allowed 
* Mr. Jesse, who in his Gleanings of Natural History treats most agreeably of 
rooks generally, (and particularly of the Royal rookeries,) remarks, that these birds 
are “ sad depredators on my cherry-trees, attacking them early in the morning and 
carrying olf great quantities.” He is nevertheless satisfied, that the good done by 
the species greatly counterbalances the evil. 
