532 



MY GARDEN. 



The Wood Pigeon (Columba Palumbus, fig. 1 145) lives with us all 

 the year round, and breeds every year in the trees bounding my garden 

 and throughout Beddington Park. At times they water at the Central 

 brook, and then they come every day for that purpose. The wood- 

 pigeon is an interesting bird. In the Tuileries Gardens at Paris 



they used to sit, sometimes a dozen 

 or more, on the bare branches of 

 the trees. Whenever I went to Paris, 

 I always paid my respects to the 

 wild wood-pigeons, and bestowed 

 upon them some crumbs from my 

 breakfast-table. It was pleasing to 

 see, in the midst of a great city, 

 one of the wildest of birds coming 

 to call from the top of high trees 

 FIG. ,, 4S ._wood Pigeon, fcth nat. size. to ta k e bread frorxi the hand, and 

 even from the lips, of man. But my son, who visited Paris in 

 December 1871, has informed me that all is now changed, and that he 

 did not see a single wood-pigeon in the Tuileries Gardens, although 

 he expressly looked for them. Whether this timid bird was driven 

 from Paris by the German bombardment, or was scared away by 

 the terrible conflagrations during the last days of the Commune, 

 or whether they were killed for food during the first siege, will pro- 

 bably never be known. I should like my garden all the better if I 

 could do the same there with the wood-pigeons as I used to do in 

 the Tuileries Gardens, for anyone may tame this wild and shy bird 

 by kindness and gentleness; but there are too many ruthless de- 

 stroyers of the feathered tribes around the district. 



In the autumn of 1869 flocks of wood-pigeons, at intervals, in 

 numbers from ninety to five hundred, crossed my garden, generally 

 in the forenoon, and flew in a SS.W. direction. On the 3rd January, 

 1870, probably six or seven thousand crossed from the north-east to 

 the south-west. The birds appeared tired, and settled on some tall 

 elms, but after resting a short time they again "took to wing. For 



