28 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



To dwellers in the country the Ring-dove 

 is one of the best-known wild birds, and 

 is yearly becoming more common. Flocks 

 amounting to hundreds may be seen flying to- 

 gether, ranging over wide tracts of country in 

 search of food. When thus banded, they feed 

 upon acorns, beech-nuts, grain, and the leaves 

 of green crops. 



There is no question as to the devastation 

 which one of these flocks brings with it. It is 

 said that 1020 grains of corn have been found 

 in the crop of a single bird ; and that in East 

 Lothian, where less than a century ago the 

 species was unknown, 130,440 birds have been 

 killed within seven years, and 29,000 in twelve 

 months, without apparently decreasing the num- 

 bers. I myself shot one of a flock of Ring-doves, 

 the crop of which contained 67 acorns, while 

 in that of another bird of the same species, 

 80 beans were found. Lord Haddington ex- 

 amined the crops of four Ring-doves with the 

 following results : That of the first contained 

 144 field-peas and seven large beans ; the 

 second, 231 beech-nuts ; the third, 813 grains 

 of barley ; the fourth, 874 grains of oats and 

 55 of barley. From the above, the damage done 



