228 WILD LIFE ON A NORFOLK ESTUARY 



small Helix shells ; and the stomach of a fieldfare, killed at 

 the same time, was full of hawthorn berries. In times of 

 extreme severity the more frugivorous fieldfare is generally 

 in plump condition when its more omnivorous cousin is a 

 weakly bunch of bones and feathers. 



WOOD-PIGEONS FOOD 



Considering the continual slaughter of wood-pigeons, and 

 the small number of offspring allotted to individual pairs, it 

 is wonderful to me that not only does no sensible diminution 

 become apparent, but, on the contrary, in Norfolk at least, 

 the wood-pigeon more than holds its own. 



Gilbert White (Letter XXXIX), writing to Pennant, re- 

 marked on its movements in large flocks, " reaching in strings 

 for a mile together as they went out in a morning to Teed." 

 This was before the beechen woods were so much destroyed, 

 and does not seem definitely to point to migratory flocks, 

 although by his query, " They leave us early in the spring ; 

 where do they breed ? " he undoubtedly suggests that 

 migrants from abroad had something to do with these marked 

 movements. 



That immense numbers of wood-pigeons do come to us in 

 early winter from " over-sea " is an established fact. 1 



The food devoured by numbers of pigeons must be im- 

 mense, judging by what I have found in their crops. I have 

 never taken the trouble to count the numbers of acorns 

 found in them ; but I have seen them taken out by the hand- 

 ful, and I have felt huge quantities of them when examining 

 birds on a game-dealer's stall. In February, 1906, I wrote 

 to the Eastern Daily Press as follows : 



" SIR, I have been very much struck by the great numbers 

 of wood-pigeons that have been brought during the winter, 

 Saturday after Saturday, to Yarmouth market, which would 

 seem to suggest a rather unusual abundance (locally). They 

 are mostly a very indifferently marked lot of birds, in im- 

 mature plumage, and I think a more unsophisticated and less 

 suspicious race than our own. I have heard of some large 

 flocks coming in from the Continent, arriving a few miles to 

 the northward ; but have not, as in some seasons, any record 



1 Vide Notes of an East Coast Naturalist, pp. 1 1 l-i 2. 



