COLUMBIDZ. 295 
easy of approach, but totally unfit for eating), or the 
formation of Societies devoted to their destruction, 
such as that mentioned in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1866, 
where the farmers of a certain district formed an 
Association for this purpose, and not only pledged 
themselves to the destruction of Wood Pigeons, but 
sent circulars to their landlords requesting them 
to assist in the destruction of these birds on their 
estates. 
Like all the Rasorial Order, Wood Pigeons feed 
mostly on farm produce: wheat and barley in great 
quantities, oats occasionally (not a very favourite 
food), peas by the quart, beans and tares, Swede and 
common turnips (both the root and the greens), 
clover,* rape and cabbage, all come within the range 
of their appetite. On the other hand, the seeds of 
various sorts of weeds—especially charlock and dock 
seeds, the latter in considerable quantities, their 
crops haying been found quite distended with it— 
may form some little set off to the mischief done. 
A great portion of their food also consists of 
things which cannot be included in either of the 
above categories, as they do neither good nor harm 
to the farmer, such as acorns and beech-masts, which 
form a very favourite portion of their food: to show 
* The crop of one killed by myself in April was per- 
fectly full of clover; in the gizzard was the same, and seeds 
of weeds and white stones. 
