WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



and we opened their crops to see what they contained. 

 Every pigeon's crop was as full as it could possibly be of 

 the seeds of two of the worst weeds in the country, the wild 

 mustard and the ragweed, which theyhad found remaining 

 on the surface of the ground, these plants ripening and 

 droppingtheirseeds before thecorn is cut. Now no amount 

 of human labour and search could have collected on the 

 same ground, at that time of the year, as much of these 

 seeds as was consumed by each of these five or six hundred 

 wood-pigeons daily, for two or three weeks together. In- 

 deed, during the whole of the summer and spring, and a 

 considerable part of the winter, all pigeons must feed en- 

 tirely on the seeds of different wild plants, as no grain is 

 to be obtained by these soft-billed birds excepting imme- 

 diately after the sowing-time, and when the corn is nearly 

 ripe, or for a short time after it is cut. Certainly I can enter 

 into the feelings of a farmer who sees a flock of hundreds 

 of these birds alighting on a field of standing wheat or de- 

 vouring the newly-sown oats. Seeing them so employed 

 must for the moment make him forget the utility they are 

 of at other times. For my own part I never shoot at a wood- 

 pigeon near my house, nor do I ever kill one without a 

 feeling of regret, so much do I like to hear their note in 

 the spring and summer mornings. Thefirst decisive symp- 

 tom of the approachof spring and fine weather is the cooing 

 of the wood-pigeon. Where not molested, they are very 

 fond of building their nest in the immediate vicinity of a 

 house. Shy as they are at all other times of the year, no 

 bird sits closer on her eggs or breeds nearer to the abode 

 of man than the wood-pigeon. There are always several 



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