Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/130

102 which have an appetite for the kernel long after it has sprouted. Seed-corn must be drilled very deep to be safe from their long beaks, on account of which and other misdeeds very few Norfolk farmers give the Rook a good character. Assisted by the Jackdaws—an increasing species in the eastern counties—the rascals have also, in spite of shooting, been doing their best to let "the weather" into the farmers' barley-stacks by persistently pulling out great quantities of the top straw and much of the thatch for the sake of the grain underneath, which they contrive to do with the greatest skill, but more easily where a stack is made up of short rakings. Two or three defunct Rooks hoisted on sticks make a fairly efficient scarecrow, but occasionally a very hungry Rook will not be deterred from making a regular burrow into a stack, protruding from which may be seen the black tip of his tail. More than this, Rooks will actually attack the roof of a barn, which must be pure mischief, as there can be nothing to eat there, except it be a few grubs in the thatch. Everyone knows their unfortunate partiality for swede-turnips at this time of the year, and that in itself is a strong indictment against large Rookeries. By pecking holes they soon make the roots rot; and in such a winter as 1898-9 this is no joke. But perhaps what most annoys the farmer is to see Rooks on a turnip-field when the plant is just coming up, for, although in some cases the birds are after the wireworm, the result is the same;—a crop of barren spaces appear in the field instead of swedes and mangolds, just as if a portion of the field had not been sown at all. Mr. Holmes informs me that at Winfarthing, Rooks have for some years nested on nut-bushes, where they will not be safe from the enraged Norfolk farmer, who seldom has a good word for these sable thieves.

14th.—Two Ruffs,† just commencing the spring change, shot in a field of young wheat with some Lapwings at Postwick (W. Spelman), which occurrence so very early in the year must have been due to the open weather. Plovers at this season are very fond of young wheat, and there have been a great many on the uplands, and in this instance their presence no doubt acted as a decoy to the Ruffs. Weather wet, but days very fine in spite of it.

23rd.—A pair of Shoveler Ducks on our largest broad (Bird).