BRITISH BIRDS. 
64 
They are often accufecl of feeding on the corn juft 
after it has been fown, and various contrivances 
have been made both to kill and frighten them a- 
way ; but, in our eftimation, the advantages deri- 
ved from the deftru&ion which they make among 
grubs, earth-worms, and noxious infers of various 
kinds, will greatly overpay the injury done to the 
future harveft by the fmall quantity of corn they 
may deftroy in fearching after their favorite food. 
In general they are fagacious, a&ive, and faithful 
to each other : They live in pairs, and their mu- 
tual attachment is conftant. They are a clamour- 
ous race, moftly build in trees, and form a kind of 
fociety, in which there appears fomething like a re- 
gular government ; a centinel watches for the ge- 
neral fafety, and give notice on the appearance of 
danger. On the approach of an enemy or a ftran- 
ger they a£t in concert, and drive him away with 
repeated attacks. On thefe occafions they are as 
bold as they are artful and cunning, in avoiding the 
fmalleft appearance of real danger ; of this the dis- 
appointed fowler has frequently occafion to take 
notice, on feeing the birds fly away before he can 
draw near enough to fhoot them ; from this cir- 
cumftance it has been faid that they difcover their 
meadows and corn-fields were deftroyed by them in Suffolk. — - 
The decreafe of rookeries in that county was thought to be the 
occafion of it. The many rookeries with us is in fome meafure 
the reafon why we have fo few of thefe deftru&ive animals.-* —- 
Wallis’s Hijlory of Northumberland . 
