40 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



they seemed quite exhausted, and numbers were picked up in the 

 streets of the town. " We have always thought that Partridges 

 migrated about the mating season ; otherwise, what becomes of the 

 large stocks of birds left at the end of the shooting season ? They 

 have to find fresh quarters, as the land is insufficient to maintain 

 increased broods." — Shooting Times and British Sportsman, Jan. 9th, 

 1909. 



The Selborne Society has revived the old title of its Magazine, 

 which will henceforth be called ' The Selborne Magazine (and Nature 

 Notes),' and will be published by Messrs. George Philip & Son, Ltd., 

 of 32, Fleet Street, E.C. All communications with regard to the 

 Society should be addressed to the Honorary General Secretary of 

 the Selborne Society, 20, Hanover Square, London, as heretofore. 



It is many years since the essentially farmers' sport of Pigeon- 

 shooting has been practised with such success as this winter. That 

 destructive scourge, suggestive of virulent diphtheria, which choked 

 thousands of Pigeons last year has totally disappeared. The large 

 flocks of migrant Pigeons — birds w T hose numbers differ enormously in 

 different years — are all in wonderful plumage, which is the first sign 

 of health, and very plump. As many as a hundred birds have been 

 killed in an afternoon on many of the farms in Hertfordshire, Bed- 

 fordshire, and Buckinghamshire, and no doubt many other counties. 

 The practice is to bait one or two favourable spots by a spinney or a 

 clump of oak trees, erect a few shelters, and wait for the birds. In 

 one parish — where a Kat and Sparrow Club has recently been restarted 

 — over three hundred Pigeons and nearly one thousand Sparrows have 

 been killed since the beginning of the year. The Pigeon is, of course, 

 shot for the sport it affords and the food it provides, but it is also 

 usually regarded as one of the most destructive of birds. An exami- 

 nation of the crops of some of these birds recently shot in the home 

 counties reveals the fact that, like most other birds, their feeding 

 habits are useful as well as harmful to the farmer. Acorns and 

 beech-nuts are a favourite diet, but the birds also eat in considerable 

 quantities the bulbs of ranunculus or buttercup. The weed is of little 

 good, very hard to eradicate, and the Wood-Pigeon is the only bird 

 that is an effective enemy. — Daily Mail, Jan. 14th, 1909. 



