134 INDIAN PIGEONS AND DOVES 
acme of speed achieved by a bird’s wings. Certainly the speed at which 
they fly is very great and whilst they can cover sixty miles an hour 
in ordinary flight they must be able to nearly double this when 
frightened. Ussher, in his “ Birds of Ireland,’ gives an interesting 
instance of the speed of this bird’s flight. He writes: “I was leaning 
on the cliff fence looking out to sea, when I suddenly heard something 
cleaving the air; three birds glanced past me, and darted downwards 
to the rocks below. In an instant a rock that ran into the sea was 
reached, and one of the birds shot, as it were, into the heart of the 
stone ; the other two skimmed the rock and rose into the air; then I 
recognised these two birds were Peregrines. Wishing to know what 
the third bird was, and what had befallen it, I went down to the rock ; 
in the centre was a fissure which terminated in a crab hole, and in this 
was a Rock-Pigeon panting heavily, and with its eyeballs starting 
from their sockets.” 
Their diet consists principally of grain and seeds, but they will 
also eat berries, fruit, and shoots of young plants and certain trees. 
In the coast counties of England and Wales they are said often to do 
considerable damage to the crops adjacent to their colonies, and the 
farmers are very keen on their numbers being kept in check, though 
these birds are certainly less mischievous than their cousins, the 
Wood-Pigeons. 
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