RINGDOVE OR WOOD PIGEON. 217 



that in severe frosts they seem to feed on little else than turnip 

 bulbs, which they appear to hollow out successfully. In these 

 cases, however, it may be presumed that rooks and partridges, as 

 well as hares, have preceded the pigeons in their work of de- 

 struction, though there can be no doubt as to the fact of the 

 pigeons eating the leaves or shaws, and thus checking the growth 

 of the turnip in its earlier stages.* 



Throughout the western counties of Scotland, the Wood Pigeon, 

 though very numerous, and apparently on the increase, is by no 

 means so abundant as in the eastern districts. It is plentiful in 

 Islay, where it was introduced by the late Mr Campbell, proprietor 

 of the island. It is also found in Mull, Skye, Inverness, Ross, and 

 Sutherlandshires, but westward of the inner islands it ranks only 

 as a straggler. A few are occasionally seen in spring and autumn 

 in Benbecula and South Uist, but they do not remain. 



During the autumn and winter months, the ringdove, as this 

 beautiful bird is also called, feeds chiefly upon the seeds of wild 

 mustard (Sinapis arvensis), chickweed (Stellaria media), roots of ran- 

 unculus or crowfoot, ivyberries, oak "spangle," berries of the 

 hawthorn and holly, and various other fruits and seeds. I re- 

 member many years ago shooting great numbers in a garden at 

 Dunbar, where their plundering visits to the gooseberry bushes 

 were a source of constant annoyance. Each pigeon must have 

 consumed a large quantity daily, as I found the crops of those I 

 killed quite distended with gooseberries. Beech-nuts are also a 

 favourite food, judging from the immense quantities devoured. 

 From newspaper paragraphs now before me, I learn that in the 

 crop of one bird shot in East Lothian 272 beech-nuts were found, 

 and that in another shot by Mr Joseph Sadler, at Alyth, in For- 

 farshire, there were found 1020 grains of corn! Mr James S. 

 Dixon of Glasgow, who has for some years taken notes on the 

 food of this species, informs me that he has many times been 

 interested in watching a flock of Wood Pigeons traversing a grass 

 field, and eagerly picking off the seeds of the common buttercup, 

 which they appeared to swallow with avidity. 



I believe that the very great increase in the numbers of the 



* As the limits of this volume do not admit of a more lengthened abstract of 

 this interesting communication, I refer my readers with much pleasure to the 

 Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, Part III., 1871, in 

 which it has since appeared in extenso. 



