PERCHING BIRDS. 177 
levies heavy contributions on the crops of the farmer. In 
one way or other, however, it has with us been pretty 
well kept in check, but the indiscriminate destruction of 
birds of prey is leading to a gradual increase in num- 
bers, though they are not seen in those large flocks 
which in Scotland and the north of England have com- 
mitted such serious depredations as to awaken public 
attention to the matter. 
Few of our native birds are shyer in their habits, or 
more difficult to approach within gunshot. I have often 
walked to a clump of trees where a pair have been roost- 
ing, but they would invariably take flight from the 
highest part of the trees and as far out of danger as pos- 
sible, never giving me the possibility of even a long 
shot, and this I have found to be their general habit. 
Mr. St. John, in his last interesting work,* remarks on 
the somewhat unusual tameness of these wild and wary 
birds, that they built in some shrubs close to his house 
and not above six feet from the ground, where, when 
sitting, they allowed the members of his family to pass 
without showing the least alarm. _I have recently been 
told by a friend of a similar instance near his own 
house. 
It would seem almost impossible for any bird to build 
a frailer nest than the wood pigeon, and I have often 
wondered that the eggs do not fall, or are not blown off 
by the wind from the slight platform on which they are 
laid, and through which you may sometimes see them 
from below. I remember one instance in which a pair 
had selected a young birch tree as the site for their nur- 
sery, the stoutest bough of which was not more than an 
* Natural History and Sport in Moray. 1863. 
N 
