BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



pen of the most ardent apologist they have 

 ever had. Indeed, St. John did not hesitate 

 to rate the farmers soundly for persecuting 

 the bird hi wilful ignorance of its unpaid 

 services in clearing their ground of noxious 

 weeds. Yet, however true his eloquent plea 

 may have been in respect of his native 

 Lothian, there would be some difficulty in 

 persuading South Country agriculturists of 

 the woodpigeon's hidden virtues. To those, 

 however, who do not sow that they may 

 reap, the subject of these remarks has 

 irresistible charm. There is doubtless mono- 

 tony in its cooing, yet, heard in a still 

 plantation of firs, with no other sound than 

 perhaps the distant call of a shepherd or 

 barking of a farm dog, it is a music singu- 

 larly in harmony with the peaceful scene. 

 The arrowy flight of these birds when they 

 come hi from the fields at sundown and fall 

 like rushing waters on the tree-tops is an 

 even more memorable sound. To the sports- 

 man, above all, the woodpigeon shows itself 

 a splendid bird of freedom, more cunning 

 than any hand-reared game-bird, swifter on 

 the wing than any other purely wild bird, a 

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