THE WOODPIGEON 
small parties and to post these in neighbour- 
ing plantations or lining hedges overlooking 
these spinneys. At a given signal the firing 
commences and is kept up for several hours, 
a number of the marauders being killed and 
the rest so harried that many of them must 
leave the neighbourhood, only to find a 
similar warm welcome across the border. 
Some such concerted attack has of late years 
been rendered necessary by the great in- 
crease in the winter invasion from overseas. 
It is probable that, as most writers on the 
subject insist, the wanderings of these birds 
are for the most part restricted to these 
islands and are mere food forays, like those 
which cause locusts to desert a district that 
they have stripped bare for pastures new. At 
the same time, it seems to be beyond all 
doubt the fact that huge flocks of wood- 
pigeons reach our shores annually from Scan- 
dinavia, and their inroads have had such 
serious results that it is only by joint action 
that their numbers can be kept under. For 
such work February is obviously the month, 
not only because most of their damage to the 
growing crops and seeds is accomplished at 
35 
