The Book 269 
a hawk; but the pigeon escaped by flying in at the 
door of a house. He saw another strike a pigeon dead 
from the top of a barn. The Crow is so bold a bird that 
neither the kite, the buzzard, nor the raven, can approach 
its nest without being driven away. When it has young 
ones, it will even attack the peregrine falcon, and at a 
single pounce sometimes bring that bird to the ground. 
THE ROOK. (Corvus frugilegus.) 
The cawing of these birds, on the tops of high trees near 
gentlemen's houses, and in the middle of cities, is not 
very pleasing ; yet old habits, to which we are reconciled, 
have as much influence upon us as if they were pro- 
ductive of amusement. Hence it has been seldom at- 
tempted to destroy a rookery ; although the noise and 
other inconveniences that accompany these birds render 
their vicinity often troublesome. They feed entirely 
on corn and insects, and are little bigger than the com- 
mon crows. In Suffolk, and in some parts of ISorfolk, the 
farmers find it their interest to encourage the breed of 
Books, as the only means of freeing their grounds from 
the grub, which produces the cockchafer, and which in 
this state destroys the roots of corn and grass to such a 
degree, that instances have been known where the turf 
of pasture land might be turned up with the foot. The 
farmers in a northern county, a good many years ago, 
waged a war of extermination against the Eooks, but 
the very next year the crops were so completely cut up 
by grubs, that the same proprietors were at considerable 
