Birds, 



b9n 



Winter Food of the Ring Dove and Stock Dove. — " During autumn and winter 

 v'mg; doves feed on acorns, beech-nuts, berries and turnip leaves." — Yarrell, ii. 252. 

 " The food of the stock dove is very similar to that of the ring dove, viz. young green 

 leaves, peas, grain, seeds, berries, turnip leaves, beech-nuts, acorns, &c., according to 

 the season of the year." — Yarrell, ii. 256. I have, on more than one occasion during 

 the present month, shot several wild pigeons, including both species named in the 

 above extracts; and, once or twice, birds of both species have fallen to ihe same shot. 

 On going to pick them up, a very conspicuous dissimilarity as to their diet, during the 

 day just closing as ihey fell, claimed my attention. The ring doves, without an excep- 

 tion, were crammed with holly berries, — so much so that, either from the shock of the 

 fall or their dying struggles, the holly berries were disgorged in such quantities as to 

 surprise me greatly. One bird shut dead on the wing, and falling some distance, and 

 with proportionate impulse, must have ejected fully half a pint. The spot of ground 

 it fell on, as seen from a little distance, was coloured red with them. One of the 

 stock doves, however, while struggling in my hand, ejected some much smaller and 

 less conspicuous substances, and I was led to look more closely and ascertain what its 

 food had been : it seemed to have consisted exclusively of the seeds of the charlock, — 

 here called ' runch,' and ' ketlock ' in the neighbourhood of York, — with which trou- 

 blesome weed more farms than one, not far from the plantation in which I shot the 

 birds in question, are sadly infested. Nor in any one case have I found the stock 

 dove had partaken of the holly berries which at present seem to form the staple food of 

 large flocks of the ring dove. There is an ample supply in this neighbourhood : the 

 trees — for they are really trees, with trunks from one foot to two or two and a half feet 

 in diameter — are, in one or two places, very numerous, and even still, notwithstanding 

 the long-continued feasting of flocks of wild pigeons and fieldfares, and great numbers 

 of redwings, thrushes and blackbirds, are in many cases quite red with their crop of coral 

 fruit. So much are the ring doves' crops distended by the quantity of holly berries they 

 have eaten, that, as they fly over or past, I have been forcibly reminded, by the protu- 

 berance of their breast, of the peculiar shape which gives its name to the pouter pigeon. 

 One I shot a day or two since, burst its crop in falling, an 1 there was, for the instant, 

 a scarlet shower flashing all round it as the berries rebounded from the earth and fell 

 back again. I observe that the stock dove usually comes in to roost before the ring 

 dove. When shot together, it was usually after they had been disturbed by previous 

 shots. — J. C. Atkinson; Danby^ Grosmonty York^ January 25, 1858. 



Contributions towards a Biography of the Partridge. 

 By the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, M.A. 



" Of a bird so universally known " as the partridge, little that is 

 new can be said ; with its appearance and its habits almost all are 

 familiar." — Yarrell, ii. 334. This statement is so generally true that, 

 even if the disposition existed, there would be but little opportunity 

 for disputing it. Still, from time to lime, I have observed some slight 

 peculiarities in the habits of the partridge which I have not seen 

 XVI. R 



