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FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. 



CHAPTER XII. 



JANUARY. 



Wood-pigeons — Feeding of Widgeon and Mallards — Wild 

 Fowl — Water Rail — Wild Duck shooting — Change of 

 colour in Trout. 



During the month of January the wood-pigeons 

 commence feeding greedily on the turnips. They 

 do not, in my opinion, dig into the roots with their 

 bills, unless rabbits or rooks have been before them 

 to break the skin of the turnip. In fact the wood- 

 pigeon's bill is not at all adapted for cutting into a 

 frozen and unbroken turnip. The crops of those 

 which I kill at this season are full of the leaf of 

 the turnip ; and in feeding on these, they appear 

 not to attack the centre or heart of the green 

 leaf, but to eat wholly the thin part of it. The 

 wood-pigeon feeds more particularly on the leaf of 

 the Swedish turnip, as being more succulent. 



In the garden I see the titmice searching for, and 



VOL. I. I 



