RINGDOVE. 351 



COLUMBA PALUMBUS, LluB^eus. 



RINGDOVE. 



The enormous increase in the numbers of this species 

 of late years throughout the county is attributable 

 in a great degree to the extension of our fir-planta- 

 tions, added to their immunity at the present time 

 from the attacks of their natural enemies, crows, 

 magpies, and hawks, now almost exterminated as re- 

 sidents amongst us, through the strict preservation of 

 game. Here, again, we perceive the effect of destroying 

 for any special object, that true balance in the animal 

 kingdom, by which an all- wise Providence decrees that 

 the necessities of one class of created beings shall form 

 a check upon the too prolific tendencies of other races. 

 In the absence of those species, whose instincts teach 

 them to prey upon the eggs and young of others, or to 

 satisfy their carnivorous tastes by attacking birds of a 

 far gentler nature, the now favoured tribes threaten in 

 their turn to become injurious to man, by their undue 

 preponderance in the scale of feathered life. As in the 

 case of the smaller finches before alluded to, whose 

 increase, unchecked by natural means, and exceeding 

 therefore its natural proportions, becomes a real grievance 

 to the agriculturist — the immense flocks of wood-pigeons 

 that now traverse the country in search of food during 

 the autumn and winter months, have become an equal 

 source of complaint in the same quarter."^ They 



* In the Times of December 16th, 1864, in a notice of the 

 annual meeting of the United East Lothian Agricultural Society, 

 it appeared that subscriptions were raised amongst its members 

 for the destruction of wood-pigeons after the manner of sparrow 

 clubs in our English counties. 



