700 APPENDIX. 



discovered a Cushat's nest was looked up to by his fellows for 

 the rest of the season. A friend states that during a long snow- 

 storm that occurred in the end of the last century, one of 

 these birdswas seen in a cottage garden near Dirleton, feeding on 

 greens : a circumstance of such rarity that most of the people on 

 the farm went to look at it. Nov/, the Cushats are found in 

 vast abundance in all the cultivated parts of the country. I 

 have attentively considered the cause of this great increase, and 

 venture to assign the following reasons : 1.*^. The great increase 

 in the cultivation of clover and turnips, which afford them a 

 certain supply of food during winter ; and 2dly. The great in- 

 crease of fir woods, which are their delight, both for roosting 

 and for rearing their young. Where spruce-trees abound, their 

 nests may be seen on every tree. The female sits close, and 

 the male sometimes takes her place. When the young are 

 pretty well grown, it is easy to kill the old birds, by selecting 

 a place on some wooded bank, whence one can command the 

 greatest number of tree-tops. Remaining quiet until some 

 arrive, you embrace the first opportunity of shooting one. The 

 report of the gun rouses the other birds, but in a few minutes 

 more arrive, and one may shoot away for an hour or two. This 

 may be cruel sport, but the destruction of these birds is in a 

 manner necessary, especially as our peasant boys are prohibited 

 from entering the woods to obtain their eggs or young. 



" The Cushats fly to their feeding-places singly or in small 

 parties ; and, when searching for their companions, frequently 

 display the most elegant risings and fallings in the air. They 

 either alight abruptly, or fly round the spot two or three times. 

 When they have no young demanding their attention, they 

 spend the middle of the day in washing, basking in the sun in 

 fallow fields, or sitting upon trees. About four o'clock they 

 recommence feeding, and about six retire. From the begin- 

 ning of autumn to the end of the year they subsist on such 

 grain as can be procured in the fields. A few individuals will 

 occasionally frequent the stack-yard at all seasons. AVhen the 

 stubble-fields are all ploughed, they subsist entirely on the leaves 

 of the turnip and clover. I have heard people aver that they 

 even attack the roots. In March, when the fields are sown, 



