242 
ROOK. 
have just described ; carrion may be occasionally 
eaten, and we have trapped them with the bait of 
an egg, or a piece of bacon fat, but this forms the 
exception, and it may be stated as made up of 
grains, fruit, roots, worms, slugs, insects and 
their larvae. During the season of incubation the 
neighbourhood furnishes an ample supply ; when 
the young are able to accompany their parents, 
excursions are made to a distance ; and previous 
to the ripening of the grains, the muirs are much 
frequented, and at this time the wild berries are 
ripe, and many species of large caterpillars 
abound. As the grain ripens, they descend to 
the fields, and consume a considerable quantity ; 
as the season advances, the potato and turnip 
crops are in their turn partially attacked ; and 
when these cease, or during the severit3' of winter, 
scarcely any thing will come amiss, from whatever 
can be gathered in the fields, to the refuse of the 
dung-hill and barn-yard. The greatest damage 
which the husbandman can allege against the 
Rook, is done when his young wheat begins to 
appear above ground ; then a “ flock of Crows” 
may cause considerable loss, and being guided to 
the sweet and swollen grain by the tender shoot, 
they burrow with their bills, and leave the “braird” 
to perish deprived of its nourishment. Another 
destructive period is, when the potato has been 
newly planted, to the sets of which they are 
equally guided by the young shoot, and a crop 
thus may be materially injured. These depreda- 
tions are by far the most serious, but in general a 
