6 Columbia. 



weed and eat them either uncooked or roasted in peat ashes. These 

 roots have in like manner been used, both by bird and man, in 

 Scotland ; — by the latter they were formerly collected in the 

 Western Highlands and Hebrides, in seasons of scarcity, and con- 

 sidered highly nutritious food.* The ring-dove must to a certain 

 extent be useful in consuming the seeds and roots of weeds injurious 

 to the crops, yet Mr. Waterton, who looks upon all the feathered 

 race in the most favourable light that he considers truth to war- 

 rant, does not consider this bird of any service to man. He 

 will doubtless, however, be pleased to read in the delightful work 

 of Mr. St. John, entitled Wild Sports of the Highlands, that 

 this gentleman has proved great good to be done by them, par- 

 ticularly in consuming seeds of the wild mustard and the ragweed, 

 two of our most noxious weeds.t 



A friend, whose country-seat is in the valley of the Lagan, and 

 near to Belvoir Park, where ring-doves are so numerous, reports, 

 that they are very destructive to young plants of the cabbage 

 tribe, by eating their leaves, which are preferred to the tender tops 

 of turnips. Quantities of all kinds of grain, when ripe, are said 

 to be destroyed by them. In addition to regaling on the stooks, 

 they are accused of flying against and laying down the standing 

 stalks, to feed upon the pickles, as well as of alighting for the 

 same purpose on the masses prostrated by storm or rain. Wheat 

 is their favourite — and for it " they will fly a mile farther" than for 

 other grain.J My friend has never known them to attack Ins 



* Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 263. 



f See an interesting account of the species in chap. xv. p. 118. 



To the above it may be added, that another lover of birds, Mr. A. Hepburn, (well 

 known by his excellent contributions to Macgillivray's work on the subject) has, 

 in a very interesting communication on the ring-dove,* given the species a very bad 

 character ; considering it a bane to agriculture. His own opinion, like that of Mr. 

 Waterton, eveiy naturalist will value ; but not so that of farmers, whose evidence he 

 brings against the bird. They, aud gardeners generally, regard all birds that commit 

 any injury to their crops simply as evil-doers, without reflecting on the real services 

 which they perform by the destruction of hosts of the most injurious insects — the 

 real " pests of the farm " aud garden. 



\ Since the preceding was written, I have seen the following severe charge made 

 against the ring-dove : — " When the flock settle upon the lying portion of the wheat- 

 field, instead of breaking off the heads aud carrying them away, they lay themselves 



* Report of the Berwickshire Naturalist's Club for 1848, p. 272. 



