352 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



unquestionably do mucli damage to tlie young layers by 

 picking them off so close as to weaken and, in some 

 cases, destroy the plant, and their extreme partiality 

 for the succulent tops of the peas, as they come up, 

 necessitates a careful watching of such produce in the 

 pigeon districts, to prevent severe loss to the farmer. 

 On the large flock farms also about Thetford, where 

 turnip tops are really an object for lamb feeding, 

 their visitations are by no means welcomed ; but they 

 do not attack the corn crops till the grain is ripe, 

 when they settle on the ''laid" portions. In making 

 these remarks, however, I must not be understood to 

 encourage the wholesale slaughter of these handsome 

 birds. There are many and effectual means, by net 

 and gun, of thinning their numbers to a reasonable 

 extent, and whatever mischief can be fairly laid to 

 their charge, must be considered in connection with 

 the benefits they confer during a great portion of 

 the year, by feeding on many seeds and plants inju- 

 rious to agriculture.* Besides grain and the succulent 



* The late Mr. St. John, who paid much attention to the 

 habits of this species in Scotland, does full justice to them in the 

 following remarks : — " Dm-ing the month of January the wood- 

 pigeons commence feeding greedily on the turnips. They do not, 

 in my opinion, dig into the roots with their bills unless rabbits or 

 rooks have been before them to break the skin of the turnip. In 

 fact the wood-pigeons bill is not at all adapted for cutting into 

 a frozen and unbroken turnip. The crops of those which I 

 kill at this season are full of the leaf of the turnip ; and they 

 appear not to attack the centre or heart of the leaf, but to eat only 

 the thin part of it. The wood-pigeon feeds more particularly on 

 the leaf of the Swedish turnip, which is more succulent. * * * 

 The wood-pigeon feeds also on acorns, beech-nuts, the seed of wild 

 mustard and, where it can be obtained, devours great quantities of 

 FotentUla anserina, breaking it off in pieces of about an inch in 

 length. Though without doubt a consumer of great quantities of 

 grain at some seasons, the wood-pigeon must feed for many 

 m.onths wholly on seeds of weeds, which if left to grow would 



