A Farmer’s 
Friend. 
( : 9 ) 
THE BIRD WORLD. 
A Farmer’s Friend. 
Farmers who have suffered from the 
depredations of Rooks usually do their 
utmost to exterminate the birds, but this 
is not altogether justifiable. It is, of 
course, necessary that they should be 
kept within reasonable limits, and this 
may be done by shooting the yQung be¬ 
fore they are fully fledged, but unless 
farmers act in concert one farmer’s 
efforts will merely result in driving the 
birds elsewhere. No farmer, therefore, 
should permit a rookery to become too 
extensive or too strong in numbers. 
A German professor has published the 
results of his investigations into the value 
of the Rook as a bird useful to agri¬ 
culture, and a summary of these in¬ 
vestigations was recently issued by the 
Board of Agriculture. Dr. Holbrung is 
of opinion that in the neighbourhood of 
rookeries the harm done easily outweighs 
the good, especially at times of the year 
when insects are scarce. The birds are 
omnivorous, and take seeds, animals, 
insects, and all kinds of refuse. The 
cultivated crops chiefly damaged are 
cereals and potatoes, whilst the chief in¬ 
sect pests destroyed are cockchafers and 
their grubs, wire-worms, and the click 
beetles, dung beetles, several species of 
weevils, tortoise, or helmet beetles, and 
many kinds of caterpillars. 
During the past eleven years 4,030 
Rooks have been examined, and the 
various classes of food consumed by 
them differentiated and identified as 
nearly as possible. It was found that 
against 42,826 grains of corn and 
potatoes, there had to be placed to the 
credit of Rooks the destruction of no less 
than 43,997 insects harmful to agricul¬ 
ture. 
Considering cockchafers alone, Dr. 
Holbrung suggests that if the 2,222 
beetles were equally divided as regards 
sex, and the females laid their ordinary 
quota of 60 to 70 eggs, a total of 66,660 
eggs would be laid. In a normal 
season, perhaps, one-half would hatch, 
thus giving rise to 33,330 white grubs. 
It is considered that ten cereal plants 
form a low estimate of the plants 
destroyed by each grub per annum. This 
would mean that the progeny of the 
2,222 beetles devoured by the Rooks 
would have destroyed 333,300 cereal 
plants per annum. But the grubs live 
about three years in the soil, during the 
last two of which they are very destruc¬ 
tive to living roots, etc. 
Supposing in the second year 50 per 
cent, of the larvae are killed or die from 
various causes, there will still be 16,065 
larvae, which will destroy a further 
166,650 plants in the third year, making 
a total of half a million. The Rooks 
also destroyed 2,264 white grubs, repre¬ 
senting on the same basis a further 
22,640 plants. Against all this, which 
may be assumed to be saved by the death 
of the chafer beetles, is to be placed the 
total of 39,077 cereal plants (wheat, 
barley, oats) actually destroyed by the 
Rooks. Similar lessons are drawn from 
the destruction by the Rooks of other 
insect pests like wire-worms. 
It is obvious, therefore, that Rooks 
play a useful part in agriculture, and if 
they are kept within reasonable limits, 
that is all that is necessary. 
A Comfortable Nesting 
Place. 
Doubtless the spell of cold weather 
this spring induced many birds to seek 
out warm quarters for nest-building. In 
one of the conservatories attached to 
Gartloch Asylum, Gartcosh, may be seen 
a Robin’s nest neatly built upon the 
leaves of a large potted francona plant. 
Considerable patience and watchfulness 
must have been exercised by the bird. 
Its only inlet to the conservatory was a 
fanlight, which, however, is sometimes 
closed, and in this eventuality the Robin 
would probably have many a weary vigil 
until the doorway was opened. Then, 
again, its operations would not unlikely 
be frequently disturbed by inmates em¬ 
ployed tending the plants and cleaning 
the place. The Robin and its charge 
have excited a good deal of interest in 
the institution, and consideration for 
their future welfare is being evinced by 
the head gardener and his subordinates. 
