132 THE EING DOVE. 



In the beautiful woods which adorn the banks of the 

 Whitadder " the Eing Dove's deep melodious moan " can 

 be heard to great perfection, and there, on a fine calm 

 evening in early summer, it intermingles with the songs 

 of many birds and the gentle murmur of the neighbour- 

 ing stream. 



Sa silent is the cessile air 



That everie cry and call, 

 The hills and daills and forest fair, 



Againe repeats them all. 



Alexander Hume. 



The Cushat, like the Starling, has greatly increased in num- 

 bers within the memory of many people in the county.^ 

 This has probably been the result of various causes, 

 amongst which may be suggested the widely extended 

 cultivation of turnips and clover ^ since the end of last 

 century, which supply it with food in winter and spring 

 when little else is available, the planting of numerous fir 

 woods for ornament and shelter throughout the county 

 during the same period, which form a safe retreat where 

 it can build its nest and rear its young in security, and 

 the destruction of all kinds of birds of prey by game- 

 keepers.^ 



Numerous flocks of migrating Cushats come to Berwick- 



1 This had been observed by Mr. Hardy above forty years ago, for I find him 

 writing under date the 12th of July 1844: "Wood Pigeons are greatly increased 

 of late years on account of the number of young fir plantations which shelter 

 them." — Mr. Hardy's 3IS. Notes. 



2 Lord Kaimes, about the year 1746, had turnip fields dressed and cattle fed 

 with the produce at Kaimes, which were the first turnips sown in the county for 

 the express purpose of feeding cattle. Clover and the artificial gi'asses were also 

 sown in abundance at Kaimes, and at sundry other places about the year 1750. 

 — General Vieio of the Agriculture of the County of Berwick, by Alexander Low 

 and Arthur Bruce, 1794, p. 106. 



3 Although there are comparatively few Hawks to be seen in the county now, 

 I often notice spots by the sides of woods and strips of plantation in autumn 

 where they have plucked Cushats. The jxirtiality of Hawks for Pigeons as a 

 quarry seems to have attracted the notice of Horace, for in Book I. Ode xxxvii. , 

 he says, " Accipiter velut moUes columbas." 



