354 BIRDS OP NORFOLK. 



in masses "upon the stubbles of the corn fields that had 

 been destroyed by the storm, as many as thirty and 

 forty were killed at a time with a shoulder duck gun, and 

 often from thirteen to fourteen with an ordinary fowling 

 piece, without apparently diminishing their numbers. 

 The large flocks that regularly visit this part of the 

 county in winter, come, no doubt, from the gTeat fir- 

 plantations in the western and south-western districts, 

 where extensive tracts of heath land afford little sus- 

 tenance, and these in roving parties visit our more 

 sheltered and enclosed turnip fields and new layers, to 

 feast on the juicy leaves which at that season form their 

 chief sustenance. These roost by night in the adjacent 

 fir- woods, and large numbers may be killfed at such times 

 by ^^ laying up" for them of an evening and waiting till 

 the bii'ds fly over, which they will keep doing until 

 dark. I have known as many as sixty obtained hj this 

 means in about two hours, guns being stationed in 

 different plantations so that the birds fly from one 

 to the other as they are shot at. In winter they are 

 extremely troublesome in the large game preserves, 

 from their devouring the pheasant's food in consid- 

 erable quantities, and on some estates, in order to 

 secure as many of these marauders as possible without 

 disturbing the game, huts, either erected for the 

 purpose or for feeding the pheasants in, are fitted with 

 a net so constructed as to fall over the open front. The 

 pigeons having been allured by grain for some days 

 freely enter the trap, and when a sufiicient number 

 are collected together the net is suddenly dropped, 

 and the whole flock secured at once. Upwards of 

 seventy couple have been thus netted in the Hemp- 

 stead woods near Holt, at one time. Both this species 

 and the stock-dove are occasionally found nestmg very 

 late in the season ; and Mr. Gurney, in the " Zoologist" 

 for 1858, has recorded an instance of a ringdove's 



