The Zoologist — April, 1867. G85 



superstitious, though many a tale of dread is told of the same spot, 

 yet whenever I hear that unearthly " iz-weet," though I know it now 

 to be the robin, having seen him make it, I always feel as if something 

 was wrong with the roots of my hair. So much for "weird 

 notes." 



Food and Destructiveness of the Wood Pigeon. — I was very glad, 

 on reading the 'Zoologist' this month, to find a voice from Ireland, 

 from my neighbouring county Wicklow, and one so accurate and to 

 the point on the destructiveness of the ring dove (S. S. 498); my 

 observations of this bird, being made in this and Mr. Barrington's 

 county, are fully in support of the great mischief done by the " wood- 

 quest" to the agriculturists at certain seasons of the year. Fre- 

 quently I have taken a measured pint of wheat from the crop of an 

 individual, and it still feeding at the time of being shot; they are also 

 I know very destructive to turnips. Wheat is the favourite grain, 

 barley next, and oats least sought after, I should say on account of 

 the amount of chaff adherent to the grain. They prey greedily on 

 turnips, rape, vetches, peas, &c, feeding both on the young shoots and 

 the seeds ; among various other luxuries may be particularly mentioned 

 beech-nuts and oak-mast, the berries of the ivy, holly, &c. Shoot the 

 "quest" by all means in season, as a good eating bird, not a whit 

 inferior to the partridge if similarly treated, but do spare the wary bird 

 grown tame, for who does not know of its extreme tameness and confi- 

 dence in man during the breeding season. " Coo, coo " on, blue 

 wood-quest, for while there are wide demesnes with their spreading 

 trees, as willing to receive your airy nest and your two chalk-white 

 eggs, as are the kind hearts of their owners to grant you an asylum, 

 you will never be exterminated. Where do they go after the corn is 

 gleaned ? is a question I have often heard put. There is an answer 

 to this question prevalent in many parts of Ireland. " To the thick 

 woods, to escape from the hawks while their quills are moulting." Not 

 so ridiculous an answer either, as that is the time of moult, and hawks 

 are their great enemies ; but still I scarcely consider it the thing, and 

 would be more inclined to think that they visited these thick woods 

 in "quest" of the beech and oak-mast. They certainly do leave the 

 open country at this time of year, and are rarely seen except flying 

 from one wood to another. There is another fact that not a quarter 

 of the birds seen in the corn season belong to the locality. 



Abundance of the Bullfinch in Dublin in 1866. — I never remember 

 to have seen the bullfinch so plentiful as it has been this October and 



