PIGEONS. 183 



of it. As a general rule, ring doves are ' lie ' and turtles ' she ' 

 (chiefly widows) ; while stock doves are one or the other, as 

 poetical exigencies require. But the ultimate outcome of 

 this reciprocity of sexes and species is a ring stock turtle 

 dove, as elastic in its properties as even poets could desire, 

 and as variously endowed as any Pandora- Proteus." 



To return to stern facts again, farmers shoot the ring 

 dove when they can ; firstly, because he is fond of peas, and 

 secondly, because he loves turnip tops, especially when the 

 weather is hard. 



It would take more amiable effrontery than I possess to 

 deny these charges. Pulse of every sort or kind has an 

 irresistible attraction to Columbian nature, and is searched 

 for eagerly and devoured greedily wherever it is obtainable. 

 While there can thus be no doubt that wood pigeons will 

 eat all the peas or tares they can find, I am not quite sure, 

 from my own observations, whether they actually shell them 

 for themselves. If they cannot and do not, then half their 

 guilt is purged at once, for it is obvious that the consumption 

 of shed peas no good to any one is a very light offence. 



In the turnip fields they graze like a flock of sheep, 

 tugging the tender green leaves from swedes and " Carter's 

 best Dutch " roots preparatory to bolting them in pieces as 

 big as a postage stamp. I have shot them when they have 

 been returning to roost from these vegetarian excesses, and 

 on several occasions a bird's crop has been so full of this food 

 that it has burst in falling, and a large handful of leaves 

 has been scattered about. Surely the gastric juices which 

 can assimilate such a mass of raw stuff during the hours of 

 the night ought to be the envy of all dyspeptics. The birds, 

 however, seem to thrive on this diet, while their flesh takes a 

 rather strong and musty smell which can readily be recog- 

 nized after a little acquaintance. 



Were these two items the only ones on their bill of fare, 

 the case against the wood pigeons would indeed look serious. 

 Bat it is not so, and any one interested in the question 



