Abstract
DUGALD MACINTYRE, during his long life spent in observing living creatures, has amassed a store of knowledge of the wild life of the Scottish Highlands equalled by few. In this, his latest book, he discourses on seal and hare, ptarmigan and capercaillie, gull and jackdaw, and a host of other creatures. He has a good word to say for the rook, for in spite of its misdeeds in eating grain and potatoes it is the farmer's friend in spring. Let me quote Mr. Macintyre (p. 133): “Billions of leather-jackets, which are the farmer's worst insect enemies, were taken from the fields of young oats and barley and wheat by the foraging rooks. Crops grown near the rookery grew well in bad years for ‘grub’, when crops too distant for the rooks to reach were destroyed almost to the last blade. There was one big farm many miles from the nearest rookery and rooks were never seen on that farm, so the crops suffered much from grub.”
Highland Naturalist Again
A Gamekeeper's Observations and Discoveries. By Dugald Macintyre. Pp. 220 + 8 plates. (London: Seeley, Service and Co., Ltd., n.d.) 15s. net.
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GORDON, S. A Naturalist's Notes. Nature 160, 693 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160693b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160693b0