188 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
weather was very wintry, deep snow being on the ground, and 
this had no doubt retarded them. 
The year 1877 also brought another bird into this district, 
which I do not find previously recorded, viz., the Stock Dove 
(Columba enas, L.) On May 3rd I saw a nest with two fresh 
eggs in a hole under a tree-root, which grew from a steep bank 
overhanging the River Hodder, about thitty feet above its bed. 
The female was caught on the nest, though its tail came out in 
the process (pigeons’ feathers are so very loose), but I kept her 
for twelve months, and in that time she grew a very fine new 
one. In 1878 a pair brought up their young safely, just below 
Hodder Bridge, and in 1879 I took a nest containing two eggs, a 
week sat, from much the same position, in another steep bank as 
that first named. On March 26th, 1880, I met a boy who had 
taken two fresh eggs from one nest, and one from another; he 
said there were several pairs, and it is evidently spreading in 
this direction. On the sea-coast it is not uncommon. In ‘ The 
Zoologist’ for July and December, 1873, appear records of nests 
taken near Southport ; and Dr. St. Clair, of Blackpool, informs me 
that near St. Anne’s he found a nest on the sandhills on May 
13th, 1879, and caught the old bird. 
In 1876 the well-known gullery on Pilling Moss was sacrificed 
to land improvement, and the plough, which for some time had 
been gradually approaching its precincts, finally effaced it in that 
year. It is a question whether the extra potatoes grown would 
have compensated for the good the birds do in the way of snail 
destruction, but, happily for the farmers, they did not migrate 
far, and at Winmarleigh, where they will receive protection, they 
found a suitable abiding place. They came to Pilling Moss about 
1841, so that their sojourn there lasted thirty-five years. 
The Corn Crake a few years ago had got quite scarce in 
Ribblesdale, and I think I remember observers in other parts of 
the country noticing the same thing. We fancy here that 
machine mowing has something to do with it, and there is no 
doubt that many more nests are destroyed by the closer shaving 
to which the meadows are subjected, and the relentless character 
of the machine scythe. In 1880, however, they were in larger 
numbers again. Perhaps they are getting more knowing, and 
the Corn Crakes with a greater knowledge of machinery are 
being ‘‘ naturally selected.” 
