PIGEONS.. 1S5 



sample of corn, and every penny of this would have been 

 wilfully thrown away ! 



Wild fruits figure largely in cushats' meals. From a crop 

 recently opened, six hundred and ten ivy berries and a few 

 undistinguishable fragments were taken. The Rev. F. CX 

 Morris, in his "British Birds," points out this diversity. 

 " The wood pigeon feeds on grain in all its stages, wheat, 

 barley, and oats ; peas, beans, vetches, and acorns ; beech 

 mast, the seeds of fir cones, wild mustard, charlock, rag- 

 weed, and other seeds ; green clover, grasses, small esculent 

 roots, ivy and other berries, and in winter on turnip 

 leaves and their, roots in hard weather the first-named are 

 swallowed whole. 



" It may safely be said that any damage it does, and it 

 must be confessed some is done by it amongst seed tares 

 and pea fields, is abundantly compensated by the good it 

 effects in the destruction of the seeds of injurious plants." 



We do not think there is anything more to be noted in 

 this subject. It is plain that in excessive numbers and in 

 certain districts the "quist" might become very harmful 

 to one or two specialities of agriculture ; but what has been 

 said should indicate the bird has a usefulness of its own. 

 One other charge against him we are bound to notice. It 

 is one that chiefly affects the male bird and not that luckless 

 waive, his mate. 



Wood pigeons, as well as blackgame, and the rapidly 

 increasing capercailzie in certain parts of the country, do 

 damage to woods. The two latter feed upon the young 

 shoots of firs and other trees, and buds and twigs may be 

 turned out of their crops sometimes. Wood pigeons do harm 

 in a different way. Any one who has walked through woods 

 frequented by them, about five o'clock on a bright summer 

 morning, has doubtless been soothed by the cooing of unnum- 

 bered doves perched on the tree-tops, their mates keeping 

 house below. A beautiful sound it is, but that is just the 

 time the mischief is done. Every pigeon sits as near heaven 



