280 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Blackbirds, and Jays, besides upon the abandoned 

 dreys of the squirrel. If taken young enough from 

 the nestj the Wood-Pigeon will become very tame — 

 indeed, we once had one sent to us from Spain whose 

 familiarity amounted to impudence ; he would settle 

 on the heads of his human friends, and peck 

 vigorously at them if not taken notice of, and attack 

 any dog that came into our room ; but utterly de- 

 clined to act as a decoy to his wild relations, as, on 

 being pegged down on the ground with a stout 

 tether, he would at once squat close, and remain as 

 little conspicuous as the locality allowed. We have 

 met this species in every part of Europe which we 

 have visited ; many are taken on their passage over 

 the passes of the Pyrenees by means of hanging nets, 

 into which they are driven by means of a wooden 

 imitation of the Goshawk whirled with a long string 

 in the air as the Pigeons come up the mountain's side. 

 In this neighbourhood, as we have previously men- 

 tioned in these notes, many Wood-Pigeons are killed 

 by Sparrow-Hawks, and the Peregrine Falcon is also 

 a deadly foe ; they have another enemy in our squirrels, 

 who play havoc with their eggs and callow young. 



In the severe weather of the end of 1870 and the 

 month of January 1871, the oak-woods in our neigh- 

 bourhood, being full of acorns, were visited by tens 

 of thousands of travelling Wood-Pigeons, many more 

 than I had ever previously seen together, but the 

 Wadenhoe gamekeeper, who well remembered these 

 marvellous flocks, sent me word in January 1891 that 

 the Pigeons then frequenting the woods on that 

 manor were as " five to one in the year of the French 

 war," to which I have just referred. 



