216 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



With the experience, therefore, of such visitations from an 

 acknowledged depredator, the question whether the damage it 

 does is really atoned for by the good it effects in the destruction 

 of the seeds of injurious plants, becomes rather an important one. 

 From a very interesting communication with which I have been 

 favoured by the Earl of Haddington, whose recent observations on 

 the ornithology of East Lothian and Berwickshire possess more 

 than ordinary interest, I find that the result of a series of obser- 

 vations on the food of this bird, extending over a period of some 

 years, conclusively proves that the Wood Pigeon is an agricultural 

 pest of no ordinary kind, and that the late remarkable increase of 

 the species in Haddingtonshire has entailed heavy losses on the 

 farmers of that county. The mischief committed by these birds is 

 indeed almost incredible, especially on newly sown corn fields and 

 fields of young grass, where they devour bushels of the leaf of the 

 white clover. As an example of the bird's extraordinary voracity, 

 Lord Haddington has forwarded to me, in separate cases, the con- 

 tents of the crops of four Wood Pigeons opened at different times : 

 the first contains 144 field peas and 7 large beans; the second 231 

 beech nuts; the third 813 grains of barley; and the fourth 874 

 grains of oats and 55 of barley. Such damage may be better 

 estimated from the fact that the bird is known to feed three times 

 daily, each meal probably involving the consumption of an equal 

 quantity of grain by a single bird. In a grain-producing district, 

 therefore, where from 1 5,000 to 29,000 pigeons have been destroyed 

 within twelve months, without effecting any apparent decrease in 

 their numbers, the loss to agriculturists must be enormous. The 

 statistics furnished me by Lord Haddington also embrace the results 

 of his frequent investigations over a period of nine months, begin- 

 ning with August, and ending with May ; and, after making due 

 allowance for the bird's habit of feeding upon the roots of noxious 

 weeds, (upwards of 700 pigeons having been examined by his 

 Lordship) it has been found that any slight benefit of this nature 

 is more 'than counterbalanced by the excessive consumpt of grain. 

 In further illustration of the ravages committed by this bird, Lord 

 Haddington refers to its habits of attacking fields of Swede turnip, 

 and remarks that, although it has been accused of breaking into 

 the bulb, he is not of opinion that the bill of the Wood Pigeon can 

 accomplish this. He likewise states that he has been informed by 

 the Earl of Home, who has watched the proceedings of the birds, 



