6 
COLUMBIDtE. 
weed and eat them either uncooked or roasted in peat ashes. These 
roots have in like manner been used, both by bird and man, in 
Scotland ; — by the latter they were formerly collected in the 
Western Highlands and Hebrides, in seasons of scarcity, and con- 
sidered highly nutritious food.* The ring-dove must to a certain 
extent be useful in consuming the seeds and roots of weeds injurious 
to the crops, yet Mr. Waterton, who looks upon all the feathered 
race in the most favourable light that he considers truth to war- 
rant, does not consider this bird of any service to man. He 
will doubtless, however, be pleased to read in the delightful work 
of Mr. St. John, entitled Wild Sports of the Highlands, that 
this gentleman has proved great good to be done by them, par- 
ticularly in consuming seeds of the wild mustard and the ragweed, 
two of our most noxious weeds.t 
A friend, whose country-seat is in the valley of the Lagan, and 
near to Belvoir Park, where ring-doves are so numerous, reports, 
that they are very destructive to young plants of the cabbage 
tribe, by eating their leaves, which are preferred to the tender tops 
of turnips. Quantities of all kinds of grain, when ripe, are said 
to be destroyed by them. In addition to regaling on the stocks, 
they are accused of flying against and laying down the standing 
stalks, to feed upon the pickles, as well as of alighting for the 
same purpose on the masses prostrated by storm or rain. Wheat 
is their favourite — and for it they will fly a mile farther than for 
other grain. J My friend has never known them to attack his 
* Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 263. 
t See an interesting account of the species in chap. xv. p. 118. 
To the above it may be added, that another lover of birds, Mr. A. Hepbm’n, (well 
known by his excellent contributions to Macgillivray ’s work on the subject) has, 
in a very interesting communication on the ring-dove,* given the species a very bad 
character ; considering it a bane to agriculture. His own opinion, like that of Mr. 
Waterton, every naturalist will value ; but not so that of farmers, whose evidence he 
brings against the bird. They, and gardeners generally, regard all birds that commit 
any injury to their crops simply as evil-doers, without reflecting on the real services 
which they perform by the destruction of hosts of the most injurious insects — the 
real “ pests of the farm ” and garden. 
I Since the preceding was written, 1 have seen the following severe charge made 
against the ring-dove : — “ When the flock settle upon the lying portion of the wheat- 
field, instead of breaking off the heads and carrying them away, they lay themselves 
* Report of the Berwickshire Naturalist’s Club for 1848, p. 272. 
