FIELD NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



CHAPTEK XII. 



JANUARY. 



Wood-pigeons Feeding of Widgeon and Mallards Wild Fowl Water Rail 

 Wild Duck Shooting Change of Colour in Trout. 



DURING the month of January the wood-pigeons commence 

 feeding greedily on the turnips. They do not, in my opinion, 

 dig into the roots with their bills, unless rabbits or rooks 

 have been before them to break the skin of the turnip. In 

 fact the wood -pigeon's bill is not at all adapted for cutting 

 into a frozen and unbroken turnip. The crops of those 

 which I kill at this season are full of the leaf of the turnip ; 

 and in feeding on these, they appear not to attack the centre 

 or heart of the green leaf, but to eat wholly the thin part of 

 it. The wood-pigeon feeds more particularly on the leaf of 

 the Swedish turnip, as being most succulent. 



In the garden I see the titmice searching for, and feeding 

 on, the nests and eggs of the common garden spider. The 

 little blue tomtit is of great service to gardeners, as a de- 

 stroyer of many kinds of insects which would increase to a 

 most injurious extent without the aid of these prying little 

 fellows. 



The thrushes begin to sing, and the corn-bunting and 

 yellow-hammer to utter their spring note. 



In shooting along the bay and the streams, &c., which run 

 into it, I have been astonished this year (1846) by the 

 numbers of a new visitor to this country, the little auk. This 

 bird, though so rarely seen here, appears to have been driven 

 over this season in great flocks ; they are everywhere, and so 

 tame as to be easily knocked down with sticks and stones. 



The widgeon and teal have now nearly acquired their full 

 plumage ; occasionally I bring home a drake- widgeon in his 



