CH. Iv.] HOW ACCOUNTED FOR. 199 
are blamed for attacking the root as well as the 
leaf, yet they are guiltless of the charge. Their 
bills would not be strong enough to enable them 
to commence operations on one, even if so dis- 
posed, and the utmost harm they could do it, 
would be to pick off a loose piece, when the root 
had been previously scarified. At any rate, I have 
never seen a particle of the root in their crops, 
which are often distended with the leaf to such an 
extent that the protuberance caused by it shews 
conspicuously even at a distance when they are on 
the wing. The Rooks are the real culprits who have 
to answer for the deep holes bored in the roots, 
a fact of which any one may satisfy himself, by 
at any time during the winter examining the 
ground under the trees in which they roost at 
night. 
But to return from this apologetic digression. 
That the Woodpigeon is to some extent migratory, 
cannot, I think, be doubted. My impression with 
regard to this increase in their numbers is there- 
fore, generally, that whereas formerly only so 
many of those, who came as occasional visitors to 
the Island, remained there, as found they could 
readily obtain food, the rest migrating elsewhere 
when it became scarce; of late years, since the 
