27 APRIL 1929, Page 14

DEGENERATE ROOxs• Rooks seem to be developing the habit of

egg-stealing and are coming to be regarded as little less destructive than the carrion crow. On one estate they are now making a clean sweep of the pheasant's nests. This unfortunate change in habit is probably due to excess of numbers. One of the greatest authorities on the birds—M. Svetozar, a Hungarian farmer—aceumulated absolute proof that the rook becomes in very truth a carrion crow (that is, a bird which lives on eggs and flesh) if the numbers become at all excessive, and the competition for normal food over-keen. It may be in this particular case that their ravages have been abetted by the season. There is much less cover than usual, even on the ground ; and the temptation of the eggs is therefore the more insistent.