296 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 
the extent to which these birds gormandize on this 
food I may mention the result of the examination of 
two birds made by myself: the first was on the 10th 
of October, an old bird, in the crop of which were 
thirty-seven beech-masts and in the gizzard eight 
others sufficiently whole to be counted, besides di- 
gested portions of others; there were also a good 
many white stones: the other, a young bird only just 
able to fly, was examined on the 24th of October, and 
had the astonishing number of seventy-seven beech- 
masts and one large acorn in its crop; the gizzard I 
did not examine. Holly, ivy and whortleberries, as 
well as hips and haws, may be added. 
I do not like to say anything that would create a 
prejudice against the Wood Pigeon, or cause the 
formation of a Society like the one above mentioned, 
but as a matter of fact I think it right to refer to 
a note, by Mr. Cordeaux, in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 
1867, in which he mentions the contents of the 
crops and gizzards of two Wood Pigeons: the frst 
was shot on the Ist of November and had seventy- 
six grains of barley in the crop, and in the gizzard 
partly digested barley with the usual accompaniment 
of sharp angular stones; the other bird, shot on the 
27th of November, had in the crop four hundred and 
thirty grains of barley, one charlock-seed and a few 
fragments of red clover-plant, and in the gizzard 
barley and small stones. In spite of this amount of 
barley, which, compared with the one charlock-seed, 
