Lapwing Rooks An enquiry by a body of sportsmen-naturalists has
finally solved the mystery of the notorious "black plover" that appeared on the menu of the House of Commons restaurant. The birds were not moor-hens, as Mr. Aubrey Buxton suggested in The Times, but rooks! This authentic information was readily vouchsafed in the London market from which the birds were supplied. Whether the rook, like the plover (green, grey or golden, but not black), is of service to husbandry is a subject much discussed. It eats seed-corn as well as wireworm ; but the evidence is that it is very beneficial until the numbers become excessive. I have eater' rook-pie in my youth, but it certainly is not a gourmet's bird. I should be sorry to know that the dish was becoming generally popular. The greatest of all the friends of the rook are the golfers. At the moment crane-flies ate being hatched out on the greens in quite fantastic numbers and putting becomes even more than the usual gamble. Many birds eat these queer creatures both before and after their emergence ; but the rooks are their enemy No. 1 at all stages. Swallows also will feed on them wh'en on the wing, and often fly with singular slowness along house-eaves in pursuit.
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