CHAP, xv.] WOOD-PIGEONS. 119 



seeds of two of the worst weeds in the country, the wild mustard 

 and the ragweed, which they had found remaining on the surface 

 of the ground, these plants ripening and dropping their seeds 

 before the corn is cut. Now no amount of humun labour and 

 search could have collected on the same ground, at that time of 

 the vear, as much of these seeds as was consumed by each of 

 these five or six hundred wood-pigeons daily, for two or three 

 weeks together. Indeed, during the whole of the summer and 

 spring, and a considerable part of the winter, all pigeons must 

 feed entirely on the seeds of different M'ild plants, as no grain is 

 to be obtained by these soft-billed birds excepting immediately 

 after the sowing-time, and when the corn is nearly ripe, or for a 

 siiort time after it is cut. Certainly I can enter into the feelings 

 of a farmer who sees a flock of hundreds of these birds alighting 

 on a field of standing wheat or devouring the newly-sown oats. 

 Seeing them so employed must for the moment make him forget 

 the utility they are of at other times. For my own part I never 

 shoot at a wood-pigeon near my house, nor do I ever kill one 

 without a feeling of regret, so much do I like to hear their note 

 in the spring and summer mornings. The first decisive symptom 

 of the approach of spring and fine weather is the cooing of the 

 wood-pigeon. Where not molested, they are very fond of build- 

 ing their nest in the immediate vicinity of a house. Shy as they 

 are at all other times of the year, no bird sits closer on her eggs 

 or breeds nearer to the abode of man than the wood-pigeon. 

 There are always several nests close to my windows, and fre- 

 quently immediately over some walk, where the birds sit in con- 

 scious security, within five or six feet of the passer-by; and there 

 are generally a pair or two that feed with the chickens, knowing 

 the call of the woman who takes care o the poultry as well as 

 the tame birds do. 



I have frequently attempted to tame young wood-pigeons, 

 taking them at a very early age from the nest. They generally 

 become tolerably familiar till the first moult ; but as soon as 

 they acquire strength of plumage and wing, they have invariably 

 left me, except in one instance which occurred two years ago. 

 I put some wood-pigeon's eggs under a tame pigeon of my chil- 

 dren's, taking away the eggs on which she was sitting at the 

 time. Only one of the young birds grew up, and it became 



