CH. IV.] HOW ACCOUNTED FOR. 199 



are blamed for attacking the root as well as the 

 leaf, yet they are guiltless of the charge. Their 

 bills would not be strong enough to enable them 

 to commence operations on one, even if so dis- 

 posed, and the utmost harm they could do it, 

 would be to pick off a loose piece, when the root 

 had been previously scarified. At any rate, I have 

 never seen a particle of the root in their crops, 

 which are often distended with the leaf to such an 

 extent that the protuberance caused by it shews 

 conspicuously even at a distance when they are on 

 the wing. The Rooks are the real culprits who have 

 to answer for the deep holes bored in the roots, 

 a fact of which any one may satisfy himself, by 

 at any time during the winter examining the 

 ground under the trees in which they roost at 

 night 



But to return from this apologetic digression. 

 That the Woodpigeon is to some extent migratory, 

 cannot, I think, be doubted. My impression with 

 regard to this increase in their numbers is there- 

 fore, generally, that whereas formerly only so 

 many of those, who came as occasional visitors to 

 the Island, remained there, as found they could 

 readily obtain food, the rest migrating elsewhere 

 when it became scarce ; of late years, since the 



