COLUMBIDZ. 479 
THE RING-DOVE OR WOOD-PIGEON. 
CoLtUmpa PALUMBuS, Linnzus. 
The Ring-Dove—so called from the white feathers on the neck 
of the adult—is also well-known in many parts of England as the 
Wood-Pigeon, and in the North as the Cushat or Queest. Owing 
to the large amount of land now under turnips and other green 
crops which supply food during the inclement months, as well as 
to the increase-of coverts and the destruction of birds of prey, the 
numbers of this voracious species have so far been augmented as to 
cause serious loss to agriculturists, especially in the Lothians, where 
the bird was rare a century ago. Immense flights sometimes 
arrive on the east coast from the Continent, and in October and 
November 1884 the country between Berwick-on-Tweed and Yar- 
mouth was infested by hungry hordes, while there was a large 
migration in 1894. On the west side the Ring-Dove is less numerous, 
though pushing northwards, breeding locally and sparingly in 
the Outer Hebrides and Orkneys, and visiting the Shetlands. In 
Treland, as in Great Britain, it is generally distributed, and its 
