Wood-pigeons. 47 
and presently up goes his tail and he throws his head 
down with a jerk of the whole body as if he would 
thrust his beak deep into the earth. This habit of 
searching the field apparently for some favourite grub 
is evidence in his favour that he is not so entirely 
‘guilty as he has been represented of innocent blood : 
no bird could be approached in that way. All is 
done in a jerky, nervous manner. As he turns side- 
ways the white feathers show with a flash above the 
green corn; another movement, and he looks all 
black. 
It is more difficult to get near the larger birds 
upon the downs than in the meadows, because of the 
absence of cover ; the hedge here is so low, and the 
gateway open and bare, without the overhanging oak 
of the meadows, whose sweeping boughs snatch and 
retain wisps of the hay from the top of a waggon-load 
as it passes under. The gate itself is dilapidated— 
perhaps only a rail, or a couple of ‘flakes’ fastened 
together with tar-cord: there are no cattle here to 
require strong fences. 
In the young beans yonder the wood-pigeons are 
busy—too busy for the farmer ; they have a habit, as 
they rise and hover about their feeding-places, of sud- 
denly shooting up into the air, and as suddenly sinking 
again to the level of their course, describing a line 
roughly resembling the outline of a tent if drawn on 
paper, a cone whose sides droop inward somewhat 
They do this too, over the ash woods where they 
