HIS CLEVERNESS.
The rook has been troubling a good many people lately ; farmers, landowners, and not least county councillors. Several local councils ordered the destruction of the birds and were told very crisply by some owners of rookeries that if they wanted the birds killed they must do it themselves. In any case it was useless for one man to try when others did not. The increase of the rook population is undoubted.• There are many more immigrant rooks in winter and rather more home-nesting birds. It is easier to condemn them than to carry out the sentence ; for they are as clever as rats. They will see a gun half a mile away and be out of range long before any real enemy approaches. You may:watch them by the hour from the open and close at hand if you carry no weapon. You will not come near a single bird if you carry any sort of weapon.
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