512 THE PIGEONS 



birds hawks, jays, and magpies which preyed either upon the 

 birds themselves or their eggs, and in part to the increase of land 

 under cultivation, and of plantations affording them harbourage for 

 their nests. As a consequence, the suspicions and ominous forecasts 

 of the generation of farmers which first began to perceive this increase 

 have been amply fulfilled in some parts of the kingdom at any rate ; 

 for, without doubt, this bird, in many parts of the country, is at times 

 a veritable scourge, devouring immense quantities of corn, young 

 turnips, and clover, according to the season of the year. Years ago, 

 on the other hand, when these birds were kept within bounds, partly 

 by their natural enemies and partly by more restricted harbourage, 

 things were otherwise. Thus, for example, we find St. John in his 

 delightful Wild Life in the Highlands striving to convince a farmer 

 that "an immense flock of wood-pigeons, busily at work in a field 

 of young clover," were really his benefactors. To prove his point 

 he shot eight from the field which was being ravaged, and in the 

 presence of the farmer straightway opened their crops. The results 

 were exactly in accordance with his predictions. The birds had not 

 been eating the clover, but " every pigeon's crop was as full as it 

 could possibly be of the seeds of the worst weeds in the country, the 

 wild mustard and the ragweed, which they had found remaining on 

 the surface of the ground. . . ." And, he continues, " 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 

 these five or six hundred wood-pigeons daily for two or three weeks 

 together. Indeed, during the whole of the summer and spring, and a 

 considerable part of the winter, all pigeons must feed entirely on the 

 seeds of different wild plants. . . ." To-day the tide has turned in 

 the opposite direction, and not without some reason, this bird is viewed 

 with extreme dislike by farmers in many parts of the country. Mr. 

 T. H. Nelson, after the usual gibe at the "sentimental cabinet 

 naturalists," tells us that the food of the wood-pigeon consists " chiefly 

 of grain, peas, beans, beechmast, acorns, seedling potatoes, turnip-tops, 



