134 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 



acme of speed achieved by a bird's wings. Certainly the speed at which 

 they fly is very great and whilst they can cover sixty miles an hour 

 in ordinary flight they must be able to nearly double this when 

 frightened. Ussher, in his " Birds of Ireland," gives an interesting 

 instance of the speed of this bird's flight. He \vrites : " I was leaning 

 on the cliff fence looking out to sea, when I suddenly heard something 

 cleaving the air ; three birds glanced past me, and darted dowTiwards 

 to the rocks below. In an instant a rock that ran into the sea was 

 reached, and one of the birds shot, as it were, into the heart of the 

 stone ; the other two skimmed the rock and rose into the air ; then I 

 recognised these two birds were Peregrines. Wishing to know what 

 the third bird was, and what had befallen it, I went down to the rock ; 

 in the centre was a fissure which terminated in a crab hole, and in this 

 was a Rock-Pigeon panting heavilj^ and with its eyeballs starting 

 from their sockets." 



Their diet consists principally of grain and seeds, but they will 

 also eat berries, fruit, and shoots of young plants and certain trees. 

 In the coast counties of England and Wales they are said often to do 

 considerable damage to the crops adjacent to their colonies, and the 

 farmers are very keen on their numbers being kept in check, though 

 these birds are certainly less mischievous than their cousins, the 

 Wood-Pigeons. 



