72 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
northern aspect; and it is most apt to make its appearance in 
woods that have been allowed to grow up too thick, on account 
of thinnings being delayed. 
Last year produced a rich mast in the beech-woods at St 
Gobain, in the Aisne, and attracted such swarms of wood- 
pigeons that a rough estimate was made of the loss they were 
causing. It was calculated that there were fully 10,000 pigeons. 
As the crops of some shot at g o’clock in the morning held from 
54 to 79 beech-nuts, it was estimated that each pigeon would 
consume about 150 daily, amounting to 1,500,000 for the whole 
of the flocks. As the pigeons remained feeding there for a full 
month, this meant the destruction of 825 bushels of beech-nuts, 
worth £300, and sufficient for the broadcast-sowing of 125 acres. 
The actual result of this visitation was that all the good seed 
was completely consumed throughout the mature falls prepared 
for natural regeneration. The question may well be asked, 
“‘Why was this destruction allowed to go on unchecked for a 
whole month?” Although the wood pigeon is known to be 
injurious, yet it appears that the subordinate forest officials have 
no general authority to shoot it. In any case, it is difficult to 
reduce their numbers largely by shooting ; but organised effort 
to harass them continually would keep them on the move, as 
they do not like being disturbed. If scared away from the 
woods, however, this would only mean that they were being 
driven to prey on the farmer—for, like the destructive rabbit, 
they must satisfy their voracity somehow, whether in the wood- 
lands or in the fields. 
Amendments to the Code Forestier have recently been laid 
before Parliament. One of these, dealing with fines for damage 
done by farm-stock grazing in woods, serves to show what is 
officially considered the sliding-scale in this respect, viz., for a 
pig 1, a sheep 2, a horse or mule 3, a goat 4, and an ox, cow 
or calf 5 francs; and the amount of the fine is the double of 
that if the woods trespassed in are less than 10 years old. 
The public parks and gardens within the city walls of Paris— 
and therefore exclusive of the Bois de Bologne and Bois de 
Vincennes—aggregate 530 acres, of which 310 acres belong to 
the town. In these public ornamental grounds there have been 
planted over 38,000 trees and 417,000 shrubs, while other 86,700 
trees have been planted along the boulevards, streets, etc. These 
125,000 trees would form quite a large woodland if growing all 
