L I V. CUSHAT. 



(Columba palumbus.} 



THE illustration was done from recollection of a scene we saw 

 in the Duke of Argyll's garden, at Argyll Lodge, Kensington. 

 The Cushat lit on a large horse-chestnut tree, and ate the flowers. 

 None of us had ever seen it do so before. 



Cushats are very numerous in London, and seem to be rather 

 on the increase. They are to be seen and heard in Hyde Park, 

 Cadogan Place, Montagu Square, and elsewhere. I saw the first 

 pair that came to Whitehall Gardens, nesting in one of the tall 

 elms, some years ago. There are many more there now. It is not 

 likely that such a shy bird should have come into London from 

 the country, but more probable that London has extended and 

 enclosed them in their old haunts, and that they have spread 

 from one garden to another. It is very pleasant to hear them 

 cooing among the trees in town on an early summer Sunday 

 morning when all is still, and one is not disturbed there by the 

 thought that they are picking the hearts out of the young 

 cabbage plants in one's garden, or spoiling the turnips in the 

 field. I have never seen them in Edinburgh or Glasgow, but 

 there used to be many in the Tuilleries Gardens in Paris before 

 the siege. I have seen them coming for crumbs when the 

 children were feeding sparrows there. I believe there are none 

 now. In the South of Scotland they are very numerous. I 

 have heard a tradition there that they used in old times to build 

 their nests on the ground; but, their young having been so often 

 destroyed by passing cattle, they took to nesting on trees. From 

 that safe altitude they now shout to their former enemies in 



117 



