138 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



acquire their full beauty of feather. The bird seems to have a 

 natural shyness and wildness which prevent its ever becoming 

 domesticated like the common blue rock-pigeon. 



It is very difficult to approach wood-pigeons when feeding 

 in the fields. They keep in the most open and exposed places, 

 and allow no enemy to come near them. It is amusing to 

 watch a large flock of these birds while searching the ground 

 for grain. They walk in a compact body, and in order that 

 all may fare alike, the hindmost rank every now and then fly 

 over the heads of their cogipanions to the front, where they 

 keep the best place for a minute or two, till those now in the 

 rear take their place in the same manner. They keep up this 

 kind of fair play during the whole time of feeding. Almost 

 every kind of seed is eaten by them, and the farmers accuse 

 them of destroying their turnips in severe snow and frost. 

 Thpy feed also on fruit of all kinds, both the wild berries, such 

 as mountain-ash, ivy, etc., and also upon almost all garden fruits 

 that are not too large to be swallowed. Numbers of them come 

 every evening to my cherry-trees, where they fearlessly swallow 

 as many cherries as they can hold, although the gardener may 

 be at work close at hand; Strawberries also are occasionally 

 laid waste by them ; and in the winter and early spring they 

 devour the young cabbage and lettuce-plants. Where acorns 

 are plentiful, the wood-pigeons seem to prefer them to anything 

 else ; and the quantity they manage to stow away in their crop 

 is perfectly astonishing. 



There are many months of the year, however, during which 

 they are compelled, nolentes volentes, to feed wholly on the seeds 

 of wild plants, thereby saving the farmers an infinity of trouble 

 in weeding and cleaning their lands. The wood-pigeons breed 

 here in great numbers, the large fir-woods and ivy-covered 

 banks of the river affording them plenty of shelter. Their 

 greatest enemy in the breeding-season is the hooded crow, which 

 is constantly searching for their eggs, and from their white colour, 

 and the simplicity of the nest, he can distinguish them at a 

 great distance off". The sparrowhawk, too, frequently carries 

 off the young birds, when nearly ready to fly, taking them out 

 of the nest. It is a curious fact, but one I have very often 

 observed, that this hawk, though I have seen him in the vicinity 

 of the wood-pigeon's nest, and have no doubt that he has known 



