WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS 



prevent its ever becoming domesticated like the common 

 blue rock-pigeon. 



It is very difficult to approach wood-pigeons when feed- 

 ing in the fields. They keep in the most open and exposed 

 places, and allow no enemy to come near them. It is amus- 

 ing to watch a large flock of these birds while searching 

 the ground for grain. They walk in a compact body, and 

 in order that all may fare alike, the hindmost rank every 

 now and then fly over the heads of their companions to the 

 front, where they keep the best place for a minute or two, 

 till those now in the rear take their place in the same 

 manner. They keep up this kind of fair play during the 

 whole time of feeding. Almost every kind of seed is eaten 

 by them, and the farmers accuse them of destroying their 

 turnips in severe snow and frost. They feed also on fruit 

 of all kinds, both the wild berries, such as mountain-ash, 

 ivy, &c., and also upon almost all garden fruits that are not 

 too large to be swallowed. Numbers of them come every 

 evening to my cherry-trees, where they fearlessly swallow 

 as many cherries as they can hold, although the gardener 

 may be at work close at hand. Strawberries also are occa- 

 sionally laid waste by them; and in the winter and early 

 spring they devour the young cabbage and lettuce-plants. 

 Where acorns are plentiful, the wood-pigeons seem to pre- 

 fer them to anything else; and the quantity they manage 

 to stow away in their crop is perfectly astonishing. 



There are many months of the year, however, during 

 which they are compelled, no/ensvo/ens, to feed wholly on the 

 seeds of wild plants, thereby saving the farmers an infinity 

 of trouble in weeding and cleaning their lands. The wood- 



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