PERCHING BIRDS. 177 



levies heavy contributions on the crops of the farmer. la 

 one way or other, however, it has with us been pretty 

 well kept in check, but the indiscriminate destruction of 

 birds of prey is leading to a gradual increase in num- 

 bers, though they are not seen in those large flocks 

 which in Scotland and the north of England have com- 

 mitted such serious depredations as to awaken public 

 attention to the matter. 



Few of our native birds are shyer in their habits, or 

 more difficult to approach within gunshot. I have often 

 walked to a clump of trees where a pair have been roost- 

 ing, but they would invariably take flight 'from the 

 highest part of the trees and as far out of danger as pos- 

 sible, never giving me the possibility of even a long 

 shot, and this I have found to be their general habit. 

 Mr. St. John, in his last interesting work,* remarks on 

 the somewhat unusual tameness of these wild and wary 

 birds, that they built in some shrubs close to his house 

 and not above six feet from the ground, where, when 

 sitting, they allowed the members of his family to pass 

 without showing the least alarm. I have recently been 

 told by a friend of a similar instance near his own 

 house. 



It would seem almost impossible for any bird to build 

 a frailer nest than the wood pigeon, and I have often 

 wondered that the eggs do not fall, or are not blown off 

 by the wind from the slight platform on which they are 

 laid, and through which you may sometimes see them 

 from below. I remember one instance in which a pair 

 had selected a young birch tree as the site for their nur- 

 sery, the stoutest bough of which was not more than an 



* Natural History and Sport in Moray. 1863. 



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