10 COLUMBIDjE. 



On examining the crops of some of these birds shot in the 

 month of June 1832, at the wild peninsula of the Horn (co. 

 Donegal), where the species is very common, we found them 

 filled with the seeds of rushes. When visiting the island of 

 Achil, on the 29th of June 1834 (in company with Mr. E. Ball), 

 we approached several rock-doves feeding on the low sandy tract 

 near Keil, within about twenty-five paces. Having remarked 

 to Lieut. Reynolds, R.N. (then stationed there, on the Coast Guard 

 service), how near they permitted the approach of our party, 

 he stated, that on the preceding day he killed twenty-one of them 

 about the same place, and that he had procured so many as fifty 

 in a forenoon there, and fifty-two on another day, although more 

 than two were never obtained at a shot. They are seldom 

 molested in this wild district, and consequently exhibit little fear 

 of man. In the level tract alluded to, there is no ambush to 

 conceal the sportsman, who must necessarily walk up in sight of 

 the birds until within shooting distance. It is only at a par- 

 ticular season that they are seen here, when attracted by a 

 " small pea" which is abundant, and always found in the crops of 

 those killed. On requesting to be shown the plant, we found it 

 to be the common birdVfoot trefoil {Lotus corniculatus) . When 

 walking on the summit of the fine marine cliffs about Portpatrick, 

 in Wigtonshire, in August 1838, with Captain Fayrer, R.N., he 

 remarked to me on some rock-doves being sprung, that he had 

 shot many there as they came to feed on the wild " liquorice," a 

 favourite kind of food ; — tins also I ascertained to be the Lotus 

 corniculatus. At the marine cliffs near Ballantrae, in the adjoin- 

 ing county of Ayr, I have remarked these birds to be common, 

 and have seen flocks of them alight in the fields of green or 

 unripe corn, adjacent to the coast. It was stated that on two 

 days in the autumn of 1843, a gentleman shot, about the marine 

 caves here, sixteen or seventeen brace each day. 



The rock-dove breeds in great numbers in numerous marine 

 caves of the headland of Oe in Islay ; many miles from which they 

 may be seen daily feeding throughout the winter in large flocks — 

 seventy or eighty together — particularly in the stubble fields. 



