Oct. 1, 1806.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



231 



The Wood-Pigeon (Columha Fa/umbus).—T\\e 

 question of the utility of the Wood-Pigeon has just 

 been raised. On the one side, a society has been 

 formed for the destruction of these birds, and the 

 members, by circular, call upon their fellow-sufferers 

 to help them to thin the ranks of their feathered 

 foes ; but the [wisdom of these proceedings has 

 been questioned, and information has been called 

 for. Living in an agricultural and well-wooded 

 district, where the Wood-Pigeon is a very common 

 bird, I have had frequent opportunities of studying 

 their habits, and these opportunities have not been 

 altogether neglected. The Wood-Pigeon is a late 

 breeder; and during the breeding season they go in 

 pairs, dispersing themselves over the country, chiefly 

 choosing the neighbourhood of woods and high 

 hedgerows. The nest is a rude structure of sticks, 

 and is generally overlaid with dry grass roots. The 

 eggs — two in number — are of a pure white. The 

 pest is placed in the fork of a tree (the fir is a 

 favourite), in high hedgerows, in bushes standing 

 singly, and in similar situations. They attend very 

 assiduously to their young ones, feeding them fre- 

 quently, and from my own observation I should say 

 always on grain ; for the crops of several young 

 ones which I examined contained nothing else. In 

 early spring they do great injury to the newly-sown 

 corn, making a clean sweep of the badly-covered 

 grain, and billing up large quantities of it. When 

 the grain is formed in the ear, they begin at it 

 again, and continue to prey upon it until it is carried 

 into the stackyard. When the corn is carried, they 

 feed on the young clover, picking out the centre 

 buds, and doing great injury to the young plants. 

 The autumn-sown corn, like the spring-sown, suffers 

 from their depredations ; and during the snow- 

 storms and hard weather they feed on the tops of 

 turnips, and often pick holes into the bulbs, which 

 thus become more liable to be destroyed by the 

 frost. I was present last harvest (1S65) when a hen 

 was shot as she came from a field of tares. The 

 shot tore away the whole of her breast, exposing 

 the crop, which was filled with tares. My com- 

 panion thought there was a good half-pint, and it is 

 recorded that the Duke of Richmond's gamekeeper 

 shot a Wood-Pigeon in whose crop there were S5S 

 grains of barley. In this neighbourhood men are 

 employed to shoot them. They are very shy, and in 

 order to get near them, a hut is built of thorns in 

 the hedgerow of the field they frequent ; and in this 

 hut the sportsman waits patiently for his chance, 

 shooting the birds while feeding in the field or 

 roosting in the trees. In this way forty have been 

 frequently shot in a day by one man ; and as they 

 can be sold in York for 6d. each, shooting them is a 

 profitable employment. Two men employed to 

 shoot them shot at one without doing it more 

 damage than shooting off its tail. This bird was 



observed to visit the held seven times after that, 

 and on the seventh visit it was shot. I saw this 

 bird opened, and its crop contained half a pint of 

 wheat. It was a hen, and doubtless had a brood in 

 an adjoining plantation. The destruction caused by 

 a pair of these feathered Arabs is considerable ; but 

 what must it be when they go into the fields a 

 hundred at once, as they do here ? No wonder the 

 farmer is wishful to keep down such pests, and 

 employs every lawful means to do so. — John 

 Hanson. 



A Prolific Sea- Anemone. — I bave not at 

 present access to Gosse's "Actinologia Britannica," 

 or I might probably find an answer to the question 

 I am about to ask. Sir John Dalycll records the 

 history of a long-lived Mesembryanthemum, which 

 had been in his possession upwards of twenty years, 

 and had produced during that time nearly 300 

 young. That is the only very prolific anemone of 

 which I remember having seen any record. A few- 

 days ago a Sagartia Bellis, or Daisy Anemone, 

 which has been in my aquarium for about three 

 years, produced at one birth considerably more 

 than 100 young, all of which were attached to the 

 bottom of the tank, near the position of the parent 

 animal. It was a beautiful sight to see them 

 expanding at one time, like a tiny forest of young 

 polypes, and waving their tentacles in their aqueous 

 home. Have any readers of Science Gossip had 

 anemones equally prolific ? — T. P. Barlcas. 



Planokbis Lineatus. — The occurrence of 

 Tlunorbis lineatus, as communicated in the following 

 letter, may be of interest to E,. Tate : — 



"Enclosed are some specimens of (I believe) 

 Planorlis lineatus, which, in your recent work, you 

 describe as being the rarest of the fresh water 

 moilusks, and chiefly found in the neighbourhood of 

 London. I have found them quite abundant at 

 Tuddenham, wherever the Utricularia vulgaris 

 grows. If I am correct, it will be adding another 

 to the list of moilusks already found in Suffolk." — 

 A. Mavor Brown. 



Colony of Pats.— On the 6th of this month, 

 being on a short expedition in the country (near 

 Cork), I called on an old friend in the milling trade, 

 from whom I had some amusing anecdotes about his 

 experience at rat-killing. One which struck me most 

 forcibly as being something very unusual was that, a 

 short time since, he happened to observe a rat-track 

 at the foot of an old tree, thickly covered with 

 ivy. He sent a lad up the tree, when down came 

 a regular shower of rats, fully twenty in number, 

 a great many of which he killed with his trusty 

 little terriers. At the top of the tree was a large hole, 

 evidently where they had nested for some time— 

 R.R. 



