January 24—Can it be that the mild weather has made the Rooks nest earlier this year? Just now they are very busy working on their Spring homes—many nests are almost complete, while others are just begun—but all are busy weaving in and out of the trees, fetching and carrying materials and assisting in com. minal fashion to drive away any possible or probable marauder which may appear on the skyline. Here in Shanghai these birds build freely where they will and (unless they choose a Municipal side-walk where the Police have to interfere for the sake of cleanliness) are left in peace by the populace. In England where they have an evil reputation for the destruction of grain (both seeds and crop) Rooks are often shot when out in the fields and are systematically persecuted once or twice each year either by the pulling down of their nests, when the shooting the -fedged birds as "sitters" in the trees: this latter is, in fact, regard as a legitimate sport and must call for some marksmanship when the proper "rook rifle"—not the shotgun—is used for the killing: add to this that Rookpie is said to be good eating and the excuse for the sport is complete...but I wonder how many of those who indulge in it have heard the parent Rooks wailing and calling far into the night in search of their lost young? Rooks are, indeed, very "human" creatures, and careful research has proved that, if farmers will only prepare their seed-grain (say, with tar) and use plenty of scare-crows...both alive and dead the Rook will well repay them for his robberies by the immense number of harmful insects he will destroy, with a balance in his favour. Chinese farmers seem to know this, for although they use many ingenious scare-crows (many mechanical) they never shoot the birds. Or is it merely because gun-power is too expensive?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.