372 Birds. 



have I remarked that when unkindly weather in spring arrested the 

 growth of some of our white corn crops, allowing the hardy wild mus- 

 tard to overtop the tender blade, how assiduously the pretty ringdove 

 hastened the destruction of the weed by stripping its every leaf. And 

 there, too, is the lowly chickweed {Stellaria media), so troublesome 

 in some soils, for weeks its well-filled capsules furnish an abundant 

 repast. Time will, I trust, enable me to add to this short catalogue 

 of the benefits which it confers on rural labours. There are few 

 woodland voices which delight me more, — few powers and graces of 

 flight which I love better to see ; but their countless numbers and 

 frightful ravages steel the mind to their destruction. 



The Pheasant. Viewed in all its bearings the introduction of the 

 pheasant into Great Britain must be considered a great curse. How 

 has its illegal destruction swelled our criminal list ; and what a pow- 

 erful, legalized instrument of oppression its maintenance becomes in 

 the hands of an unfeeling landlord ! So sensible are some of our 

 kinder-hearted proprietors of its great ravages, that they pay the 

 hire of a watchman, till the fields of winter wheat have outgrown its 

 cupidity; an honest regard for the rights of others worthy of all praise 

 and imitation. Fields of red clover are often inseparably injured, and 

 many turnips spoiled, in the neighbourhood of the pheasant's winter 

 retreats. Before the arrival of spring seed-time their numbers are 

 well thinned, so that their ravages in newly-sprung fields of beans, 

 oats and barley are not so noticeable : moreover, the insect world then 

 attracts their attention. The old female often leads her brood into 

 corn-fields, where they remain till harvest. Beans, when sown in 

 drills, as they usually are with us, seem to afford them a choice asy- 

 lum : judging from the flocks of song-thrushes which affect such situ- 

 ations in autumn, insect food must be abundant. Personal observa- 

 tion does not enable me to say anything in praise of the pheasant, 

 touching the destruction of injurious weeds: and I must conclude this 

 short account by stating, that next to the ringdove, the pheasant is by 

 far the most destructive of our native birds. Where extensive pre- 

 serves exist, few of these birds would survive the rigours of winter 

 unless regularly fed ; and this very act places the conduct of their 

 owners in a very equivocal light, and consequently their misdeeds are 

 looked upon with an evil eye, wheal the grievance remains unredressed. 



The Partridge is a brave little bird ; and though chiefly supported 

 on the produce of our fields, yet he scorns to partake of our bounte- 



