4o IN BIRD-LAND 



during one autumn, about eight years ago, we had 

 a small wood so besieged by them that the roar 

 and clap, clap, clap, of their wings, as they rose in a 

 body, was something to be remembered, very much 

 resembling a large forest tree falling and crashing 

 through the branches of its neighbours. Great 

 numbers were shot by farm labourers and, in point 

 of fact, by anybody who owned or who could 

 borrow a gun. The Wood-Pigeon is not a bird 

 to stay in a wood where such slaughter goes on, 

 and they very soon took their departure to other 

 and safer retreats. I admire the Pigeon on this 

 account ; and if other birds, as soon as they found 

 their numbers being reduced in a similar way, 

 were to go to fresh districts, those parts where 

 they were protected would soon become a verit- 

 able birds' paradise. 



Although so plainly constructed, the nest is a 

 remarkably pretty one when furnished with its 

 two white eggs. It is a pleasant sight to watch 

 the hen sitting on these with her mate on a branch 

 close at hand, erecting his feathers and puffing 

 himself out as though he were the most important 

 personage in Bird-land. Every now and then he 

 approaches the nest, bows many times to his mate, 

 then uxoriously rubs his little head on her wings 

 and back. The fond hen returns this sweet affec- 



