150 THE EOCK DOVE. 



about the end of June when the pea blooms, for then 

 there is little grain in the stackyards or in the fields. 



In the neighbourhood of Paxton I have sometimes 

 heard the country people describe a frosty morning in 

 spring, when rime is seen lying thickly on the ground, 

 by saying that " everything is as white as a doo this 

 morning." In some districts it is a popular belief that 

 the return of Pigeons to their dovecots later in the even- 

 ing than usual is a prognostication of rain on the following 

 day.^ 



Amongst some MS. Notes on Birds by the late Dr. 

 Johnston of Berwick, kindly given to me by his daughter, 

 Mrs. Barwell Carter, I find the following : — " A Pigeon or 

 two is wont to stray occasionally from its dovecot and 

 associate with the Eooks, and the boy who is sent to 

 frighten away the latter from the newly-sown corn does 

 his best to shoot the wanderer as a better prize and more 

 worthy of his aim than the cawing crowd. Hence the 

 saying common in the county when a young man has 

 taken up with suspicious company, and is charged with 

 an offence to which he pleads not guilty, ' An he hadna' 

 taen up with the craws he wadna' been shot.'" 



1 Information from Mr. John Thomson, Maxton, on the 3rd of May 1886. 



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