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OBSEHVATIONS ON BIllDS. 
FOOD OF THE RING-DOYE. 
One of my neighbours shot a ring-dove on an evening as it was 
returning from feed, and going to roost. When his wife had picked 
and drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most nice and tender 
tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled^ and so sat down to a 
choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided in this 
extraordinary manner. 
Hence we may see that graminivorous birds, when grain fails, can 
subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to suppose that 
they would not long be healthy without ; for turkeys, though corn fed, 
delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, lettuce, endive, &c., and 
poultry pick much grass ; while geese live for months together on 
commons by grazing alone. 
** Nought is useless made ; 
On the barren heath 
The shepherd tends his flock that daily erop 
Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf 
Sufficient : after them the cackling goose, 
Close-grazer, finds wherewith to ease her want." 
Philips's Cyder. 
White. 
" That many graminivorous birds feed also on the herbage or leaves of 
plants, there can be no doubt : partridges and larks frequently feed on 
the green leaves of turnips, which give a peculiar flavour to their 
flesh, that is, to me, very palatable : the flavour also of wild ducks and 
geese greatly depends on the nature of their food; and their flesh 
frequently contracts a rank unpleasant taste, from their having lately 
fed on strong marshy aquatic plants, as I suppose. 
That the leaves of vegetables are wholesome and conducive to the 
health of birds, seems probable, for many people fat their ducks and 
turkeys with the leaves of lettuce chopped small. — Markwick. 
HEN-HAERIER. 
A neighbouring gentleman sprung a pheasant in a wheat stubble, 
and shot at it ; when, notwithstanding the report of the gun, it was 
immediately pursued by the blue hawk, known by the name of the 
hen-harrier, but escaped into some covert. He then sprung a second, 
and a third, in the same field, that got away in the same manner ; the 
hawk hovering round him all the while that he was beating the field, 
conscious no doubt of the game that lurked in the stubble. Hence we 
may conclude that this bird of prey was rendered very daring and bold 
by hunger, and that hawks cannot always seize their game when they 
please. We may farther observe, that they cannot pounce their quarry 
on the ground where it might be able to make a stout resistance, since 
so large a fowl as a pheasant could not but be visible to the piercing eye 
of a hawk, when hovering over the field. Hence that propensity of 
cowering and squatting till they are almost trod on which no doubt was 
