ROGERS.

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THE ROOKERY


[Illustration: Letter I.]

Is that a rookery, papa?

_Mr. S._ It is. Do you hear what a cawing the birds make?

_F_. Yes; and I see them hopping about among the boughs. Pray, are not
rooks the same with crows?

_Mr. S._ They are a species of crow. But they differ from the carrion
crow and raven, in not feeding upon dead flesh, but upon corn and other
seeds and grass, though, indeed, they pick up beetles and other insects
and worms. See what a number of them have alighted on yonder ploughed
field, almost blackening it over. They are searching for grubs and
worms. The men in the field do not molest them, for they do a great deal
of service by destroying grubs, which, if suffered to grow to winged
insects, would injure the trees and plants.

_F_. Do all rooks live in rookeries?