128 WOOD-PIGEONS. 



back, when the beechen woods were much more ex- 

 tensive than at present, the number of wood-pigeons 

 was astonishing ; that he has often killed near 

 twenty in a day ; and that, with a long wild-fowl 

 piece, he has often shot seven or eight at a time 

 on the wing, as they came wheeling over his head ; 

 he moreover adds, which I was not aware of, that 

 often, there were among them little parties of 

 small blue doves, which he calls rockiers. The 

 food of these numberless emigrants was beech- 

 mast, and some acorns ; and particularly barley, 

 which- they collected in the stubbles. But of 

 late years, since the vast increase of turnips, that 

 vegetable has furnished a great part of their sup- 

 port in hard weather : and the holes they pick 

 in these roots generally damage the crop. From 

 this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness 

 which occasions them to be rejected by nicer 

 judges of eating, who thought them before a 

 delicate dish. They were shot not only as they 

 were feeding in the fields, and especially in snowy 

 weather, but also at the close of the evening, by 

 men who lay in ambush among the woods and 

 groves to kill them as they came in to roost 1 . 

 These are the principal circumstances relating to 

 this wonderful internal migration, which with us 

 takes place towards the end of November, and 

 ceases early in the spring. Last winter we had, 

 in Selborne High-wood, about a hundred of these 

 doves ; but in former times the flocks were so 

 vast, not only with us, but all the district round, 

 that on mornings and evenings they traversed the 

 air, like rooks, in strings, reaching for a mile to- 

 gether. When they thus rendezvoused by thou- 



1 Some old sportsmen say that the main part of these 

 flocks used to withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas 

 frosts were over. 



