COLUMBID.^. 



479 



THE RINCx-DOVE OR WOOD-PIGEON. 



COLUMKA PALUMBUS, LinilffiUS. 



The Ring-Dove — so called from the white feathers on the neck 

 of the adult — is also well-known in many parts of England as the 

 Wood-Pigeon, and in the North as the Cushat or Queest. Owing 

 to the large amount of land now under turnips and other green 

 crops which supply food during the inclement months, as well as 

 to the increase of coverts and the destruction of birds of prey, the 

 numbers of this voracious species have so far been augmented as to 

 cause serious loss to agriculturists, especially in the Lothians, where 

 the bird was rare a century ago. Immense flights sometimes 

 arrive on the east coast from the Continent, and in October and 

 November 1884 the country between Berwick-on-Tweed and Yar- 

 mouth was infested by hungry hordes, while there was a large 

 migration in 1894. On the west side the Ring-Dove is less numerous, 

 though pushing northwards, breeding locally and sparingly in 

 the Outer Hebrides and Orkneys, and visiting the Shetlands. In 

 Ireland, as in Great Britain, it is generally distributed, and its 



