186 GAME PEESERVEES AND BIRD PRESERVERS. 



or fifty years ago they Avere very scarce; if 

 you saw one it was a wonder. Now at almost 

 every season of the year there are flocks of 

 wood-pigeons in the East Lothians and the 

 adjoining comities. I would estimate a flock 

 at about 20,000 in number. They do an 

 enormous amount of evil. They are entirely 

 graminivorous and vegetable-feeding. Wlien 

 there is a snowstorm they eat the whole of 

 the tops of the tm-nips, and leave them ex- 

 posed to the frost ; but in the spring they do 

 the most damage. They fill their crops twice 

 a day with the clover plant, packing it as 

 large as a cricket ball. Then when the tur- 

 nips are singled they pull them out, and ^vhen 

 the corn is ripening they settle in the fields in 

 flocks, and trample it down with their weight. 

 We have an association for killing them, and 

 pay for about 25,000 in East Lothian ; but 

 that is a mere fraction of what is killed. They 

 sell for Qd. each. They are very good food.' 

 Mr. Scott Skirving attributes their increase 



