58 
NATURE NOTES. 
warned them off his master’s property, and told them to stop pulling up the roots. 
But the men took no notice, so the bailiff continued his course to the town, pro- 
cured two policemen, and brought them back in his cart to the scene of action. They 
arrived just in time to arrest the two men, who were about to drive away with 
their booty. The point of the story is this : that the magistrate before whom 
they w’ere brought was unable to convdct them for stealing fern roots, but could, 
and did, sentence them to a few days’ imprisonment for removing the portions of 
soil which still clung round the roots of the plants.” If those men had washed 
the roots clean of soil before they carried them away would they have been within 
their rights if they had cleared that wood of every green shoot within it? 
Edgbaston. A. M. Dixox. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Domestication of Wood-Pigeons. — Some of the readers of Nature 
Notes may be interested in the following, which I take from some natural history 
reminiscences jotted down several years ago. 
Our boyish experiment in the pigeon line most worth remembering was wdth 
wood-pigeons or ring-doves. It has often been said that these birds cannot be 
domesticated ; this we wished to test and hoped to disprove. Two we kept from 
their youth up, and turned out (without any clipping of wings) with our dovecot 
pigeons. One died young ; the other (my property and chief care) lived and 
flourished, and attained full plumage with the white patch or ring and the beautiful 
tints on the neck. ' He was a fine bird, much larger than our other pigeons, and 
master of all. With them he used to come and feed, but was exceptionally bold 
and tame, and would readily feed from my hand. Sometimes he would take 
flights on his own account and be absent for hours, but he always came home. He 
never went into the pigeon-holes to roost, but had one or two favourite perches 
just under the eaves of the house. He often flew with the other pigeons, that is 
to say, he flew when they flew, but generally rather apart from them. This was 
especially noticeable if anything startled the whole flock. The rest would circle 
within narrow limits with frequent turns, but Woodie (as I called him) took a 
wider range, dashing round at a great pace in large circles that embraced the 
whole village. There are, in Macgillivray’s British Birds, some remarks quoted 
from Mr. Xeville Wood, who tried to domesticate a ring-dove. “It found 
some difficulty in keeping upon the wing with the tame pigeons, as wild pigeons 
are not accustomed to turn rapidly or frequently in the air.” This seems to me 
quite true, that the wood-pigeon could not adapt himself to the flight of the tame 
pigeons ; but perhaps “ keep up with” is not exactly the word, for I am sure my 
wood-pigeon covered far more ground (or rather air) than did the others during 
these flights. !My other experiences with my ring-dove were curiously like Mr. 
Wood’s. This bird behaved as mine did ; “ it flew off,” he says, “ on one occasion 
to a considerable distance, but returned, to my surprise, after an absence of a few 
■hours.” Mine did this repeatedly. Mr. Wood’s bird died after six months. I 
lost mine by an accident — at least by a violent death. He would occasionally 
roost on an elm-tree bough out of our grounds, though in sight from them. I had 
tolerably certain evidence that he was there shot early one morning by a mis- 
chievous pot-hunter from a neighbouring cottage, wilfully, I was sure, for the bird 
was well known as my tame favourite. Very indignant I was and distressed at 
the loss. He was of my own training and education, and I hoped he would take 
a consort from the dove-cot. He was in beautiful adult plumage. I have no 
contemporaneous record of how long I had him, but certainly for something like 
a year and a half till the autumn of the year after he was hatched. 
Thus my experiment completely succeeded for a much longer time than Mr. 
Wood’s. I never had the opportunity of renewing the attempt to domesticate the 
ring-dove, but I, with Mr. Wood, “doubt not it would succeed with common 
care.” 
Hepworth Rectory. W. C. Green. 
The Robin’s Song (p. 38). — I am much interested in Mr. Collier’s note 
on “ The Robin’s Song.” I have never before met with any mention ,of what I 
liave called the whispered song. Many years ago I used to visit at a friend’s 
