276 OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS. 



FOOD OF THE RING-DOVE. 



One of my neighbours shot a ring-dove on an evening as it was 

 returning from feed, and going to roost. When his wife had picked 

 and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most nice and tender 

 tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled, and so sat down to a 

 choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided in this 

 extraordinary manner. 



Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, can 

 subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to suppose that 

 they would not long be healthy without ; for turkeys, though corn fed, 

 delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, lettuce, endive, c., and 

 poultry pick much grass ; while geese live for months together on 

 commons by grazing alone. 



" Nought is useless made ; 



On the barren heath 

 The shepherd tends his flock that daily crop 

 Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 

 Sufficient : after them the cackling goose, 

 Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want. " 



PHILIPS'S Cyder. 



WHITE. 



That many graminivorous birds feed also on the herbage or leaves of 

 plants, there can be no doubt : partridges and larks frequently feed on 

 the green leaves of turnips, which give a peculiar flavour to their 

 flesh, that is, to me, very palatable : the flavour also of wild ducks and 

 geese greatly depends on the nature of their food; and their flesh 

 frequently contracts a rank unpleasant taste, from their having lately 

 fed on strong marshy aquatic plants, as I suppose. 



That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome and conducive to the 

 health of birds, seems probable, for many people fat their ducks and 

 turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped small. MARKWICK. 



HEN-HARRIER. 



A neighbouring gentleman sprung a pheasant hi a wheat stubble, 

 and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding the report of the gun, it was 

 immediately pursued by the blue hawk, known by the name of the 

 hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He then sprung a second, 

 and a third, in the same field, that got away in the same manner ; the 

 hawk hovering round him all the while that he was beating the field, 

 conscious no doubt of the game that lurked in the stubble. Hence we 

 may conclude that this bird of prey was rendered very daring and bold 

 by hunger, and that hawks cannot always seize their game when they 

 please. We may farther observe, that they cannot pounce their quarry 

 on the ground where it might be able to make a stout resistance, since 

 so large a fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible to the piercing eye 

 of a hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence that propensity of 

 cowering and squatting till they are almost trod on which no doubt was 



