296 BIRDS OF SOMERSETSHIRE. 



the extent to which these birds gormandize on this 

 food I may mention the result of the examination of 

 two birds made by myself: the first was on the 10th 

 of October, an old bird, in the crop of which were 

 thirty-seven beech-masts and in the gizzard eight 

 others sufficiently whole to be counted, besides di- 

 gested portions of others; there were also a good 

 many white stones : the other, a young bird only just 

 able to fly, was examined on the 24th of October, and 

 had the astonishing number of seventy-seven beech- 

 masts and one large acorn in its crop ; the gizzard I 

 did not examine. Holly, ivy and whortleberries, as 

 well as hips and haws, may be added. 



I do not like to say anything that would create a 

 prejudice against the Wood Pigeon, or cause the 

 formation of a Society like the one above mentioned, 

 but as a matter of fact I think it right to refer to 

 a note, by Mr. Cordeaux, in the * Zoologist ' for 

 1867, in which he mentions the contents of the 

 crops and gizzards of two Wood Pigeons : the first 

 was shot on the 1st of November and had seventy- 

 six grains of barley in the crop, and in the gizzard 

 partly digested barley with the usual accompaniment 

 of sharp angular stones ; the other bird, shot on the 

 27th of November, had in the crop four hundred and 

 thirty grains of barley, one charlock-seed and a few 

 fragments of red clover-plant, and in the gizzard 

 barley and small stones. In spite of this amount of 

 barley, which, compared with the one charlock- seed, 



