WILD PIGEONS 277 



February 1885, we obtained them quite commonly — 

 indeed, two or three stockdoves were killed every 

 evening we went out, and they came to be regarded 

 quite as a regular component part of the bag. They 

 sometimes flew to roost in company with the cushats, 

 for birds of both species were once or twice killed out of 

 the same flock ; but more often the stockdoves came 

 in separately, in small parties of six or eight. They were 

 easily distinguishable from cushats when on the wing, 

 by their more rapid, impetuous flight, as well as by their 

 much smaller size, as the following weights will show : 

 Wood-pigeons, weight 17 ozs. to 26 ozs. ; stockdoves, 

 weight 124 ozs. to 14I ozs. 



The crops of the latter were filled with turnip (not 

 tops), various field-seeds, and a little grain. One con- 

 tained thirty-seven sprouting beans, weighing nearly il 

 ozs., besides some grain. We replanted the beans, 

 which in due time grew to maturity. 



In Roxburghshire, as elsewhere mentioned, stockdoves 

 first nested in 1882, and are now as abundant there as 

 on the Northumbrian side. The only turtle-dove {Turtur 

 communis) that has come under my observation in the 

 north, was also shot in that county, in the month of May, 

 a few years ago. 



During the week that I rewrite this chapter, after an 

 interval of twenty years, an incident occurs which illus- 

 trates the shifty and restless tendencies of these birds — 

 akin to those of wildfowl upon which I have already 

 insisted. On November 28th, 1905, while pheasant- 

 shooting on North Tyne, we observed, between three 

 o'clock and dusk, a magnificent entry of wood-pigeons, 

 flight after flight coming in low over the trees, in 

 almost unbroken succession during upwards of an 



