ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 11 



nests, the male birds at such a time almost always sit 

 outside the nests. In connection with this, I have 

 noticed in moonlit nights, in Galashiels, that the out- 

 sitting jackdaws did not take up their abode for the 

 night on the buildings where their mates were at rest 

 on their nests, but perched instead in the neighbouring 

 rookery beside the male crows. One could see, too, 

 against the moonlit sky that the daws were always 

 perched higher than the rooks. When a rookery is 

 invaded or disturbed during the night, every rook, 

 without fail, either sits still or flies off in dead silence. 

 Jackdaws act otherwise ; for should they get disturbed 

 (and a mere trifle disturbs them) in the rookeries where 

 they take shelter for the night, they set up a tremendous 

 cackling and chattering, both on their perches and when 

 flying, no doubt to the annoyance of their silent and 

 more dignified neighbours, the rooks. 



Wood Pigeons. — Few birds are more widely dispersed 

 than wood pigeons. They exist more or less over all 

 Northern Europe and Asia. When winter sets in 

 severely in the colder countries they migrate southwards 

 in large numbers. About October and November they 

 used to increase largely in Great Britain, leaving this 

 country in the spring for the deep forests on the Continent. 

 It is now believed, however, that few (if any) wood 

 pigeons leave our islands for other countries ; and, on 

 the other hand, the increase that used to be so great 

 some fifty to sixty years ago in October and November, 

 is now scarcely perceptible in these months. The cause 

 of one of the changes in the movements of these birds 

 is easily understood. Within the period named there 

 has been a large increase in this country in the woods 

 in which they find shelter, and in the supply of food 

 upon which they subsist, the latter caused by the 

 large increase in the breadth of land laid down in 

 crops on which they feed. The birds, from this, have 



