2 
AVOOU-riGEON. 
grGcns siifFcr considcrjilbly in vvintGr wlicn food is scnrcc. Gnl^bo-gG-plunts nrG nlso nttnckcd , I rcmfirkcd 
tliG birds fGGding gi’GGdily on tliG loavGs about tliG ond of Juno in the noighbourhood of Brighton in 1881. 
On tliG GxtonsivG sbinglo-banks lying botwoGii SliorGliani Harbour and tliG coast-linG luxuriant beds of 
wild taros have gradually formod ; boro, towards tliG ond of tlio summor, vvIigu the pods aro ripo, numbers 
of PigGons aro attractod to foast upon the sGods;" During fino woatliGr a constant stream of birds may be 
seen crossing and recrossing the harbour from the woods on the downs, the flight being continued from 
shortly after daylight till well on in the afternoon. Small parties frequently alight at the brackish pools 
in the salt-water marshes and also on the shore itself ; in all probability drink (of a saline nature) rather 
than food is the object of their visits to such spots. 
Though but few attractions are offered to this species on the barren moorlands of the Northern High- 
lands, tlie more extensive glens, which usually contain a certain amount of timber, along the river-side, as 
Avell as scattered plantations, afford ample shelter during the nesting-season to large numbers of Pigeons. 
To the wild and wooded gorges in the valley of the Beauly many pairs resort, their nests being placed 
for the most part in firs, though I met with one or two in the drooping moss-grown birches that overhang 
the course of the river. In autumn, when shooting on the moors in the west of Perthshire, I frequently drove 
out small parties of ten or a dozen Pigeons from the cover of the stunted birch bushes that fringe the 
mountain-burns at a considerable elevation on the hill-sides ; little if any inducement (except the berries 
of some hardy plant) could be found to account for the presence of the birds in such remote and desolate 
spots. 
It is probable that Wood-Pigeons arrive on our north-east coasts in considerable numbers during autumn 
and early winter from across the North Sea. Early in November 1863 I remarked on two occasions large 
flights that had apparently only recently made the land, worn and weary by the length of their journey, 
fluttering along the links and about the fir-plantations on the sea-coast near North Berwick in East Lothian. 
Doubtless also migrants occasionally make the land along the whole of our eastern coasts. > My notes for 1872, 
while shooting in the east of Norfolk, contain the following lines : — 
“Nov. 27. Heavy gale of wind from south-west. Scarcely possible to work punts on the open broad, 
being almost swamped by the spray. Pigeons and Eieldfarcs in immense numbers continued flying west 
during the greater part of the day ; with the last of the light they were still passing over.” 
As the Pigeons were in company with Eieldfares and holding the same course, it may reasonably be 
supposed that both species had only recently arrived from the north of Europe. 
The scanty collection of sticks prepared by the Wood-Pigeon for the accommodation of its anticipated 
brood is too well knowm to need description. As a rule, in Sussex, the nests are placed in fir, beech, or 
other forest-timber at a considerable elevation ; occasionally, however, I have noticed them at the height of 
only six, eight, or ten feet in thorn bushes or stunted beech trees in the valleys on the South Downs. Their 
familiarity during the breeding-season has been referred to by most ornithological writers ; for nesting-purposes 
these birds frequently resort to the immediate vicinity of houses. In the neighbourhood of Brighton I have 
repeatedly watched the female sitting on her nest on tlie limb of a Scotch fir, stretching immediately over a 
highroad, utterly regardless of the constant traffic. 
