274 MR. IlEPBUEN ON THE WOOD-PIQEON. 



legumes are often completely stript, to the great injury 

 of the crop. Newly-sown turnip seed is often picked up ; 

 and no sooner has the valuable Swedish turnip escaped the 

 ravages of its insect foes, by putting forth its second pair of 

 leaves, than the wood-pigeons commence their well-known 

 depredations. When food becomes scarce in summer, they 

 again resort to the red-clover. As the season advances, the 

 ripening corn next attracts their attention, and choosing some 

 quiet corner, if possible near a wood or hedgerow (hence 

 the evil eye with which farmers in general regard those noble 

 ornaments of the landscape), they resort thither, day after 

 day, notwithstanding the frequent report of the watchman's 

 gun, or rattle, until the crop is carried. 



In March they begin to pair, the vast flocks break up, and 

 their disposition becomes altogether changed. Their prover- 

 bial shyness gives place to greater confidence in man, and 

 they admit of a nearer approach, both in field and wood- 

 land ; nay, a few pairs Avill take up their abode in the trees 

 about the homestead, and their plaintive cooings may be heard 

 from March to November. They nestle in almost every 

 species of tree, both in woods and hedgerows, and even in 

 the hedgerows where these are permitted to grow tall and 

 bushy ; and in such situations, their nest is often constructed 

 with the stems of the wrack, or creeping Couch-grass, instead 

 of twigs. Two or three broods are reared in the season, and 

 as the male may sometimes be heard cooing over the eggs, 

 it would appear that he occasionally assists in the labours of 

 incubation. When the nest is robbed, the birds do not always 

 forsake the neighbourhood, and I am credibly informed that 

 the wood-pigeons, on the estate of Seacliff, in this county, 

 •which may be from 800 to 1 000 acres in extent, having a con- 

 siderable breadth of woodlands, were so persecuted by three 

 boys, hired by the proprietor, at the rate of one half-penny 

 for every pigeon's egg, that, toward the end of the breeding 

 season, they built no more nests on being robbed, but laid 

 two or three sets of eggs in succession in the same nest. 



But after this long catalogue of injuries, the benefits which 

 these birds confer on agriculture must also be noted. In 

 April, the ripened seed-vessels of the ivy-leaved Speedwell 



