I have consulted a sportsman, now in his seventyeighth year, who tells me that fifty or sixty years back, when the beechen woods were much more extensive than at present, the number of wood-pigeons was astonishing; that he has often killed near twenty in a day; and that, with a long wild-fowl piece, he has often shot seven or eight at a time on the wing, as they came wheeling over his head; he moreover adds, which I was not aware of, that often there were among them little parties of small blue doves, which he calls rockiers. The food of these numberless emigrants was beech-mast, and some acorns; and particularly barley, which they collected in the stubbles. But of late years, since the vast increase of turnips, that vegetable has furnished a great part of their support in hard weather; and the holes they pick in these roots generally damage the crop. From this food their flesh has contracted a rancidness which occasions them to be rejected by nicer judges of eating, who thought them before a delicate dish. They were shot not only as they were. feeding in the fields, and especially in snowy weather, but also at the close of the evening, by men who lay in ambush among the woods and groves to kill them as they came in to roost.1 These are the principal circumstances relating to this wonderful internal migration, which with us takes place towards the end of November, and ceases early in the spring. Last winter we had, in Selborne High-wood, about a hundred of these doves; but in former times the flocks were so vast, not only with us, but all the 1 Some old sportsmen say that the main part of these flocks used to withdraw as soon as the heavy Christmas frosts were over. district round, that on mornings and evenings they traversed the air, like rooks, in strings, reaching for a mile together. When they thus rendezvoused by thousands, if they happened to be suddenly roused from their roost-trees on an evening, "Their rising all at once was like the sound Of thunder heard remote." It will by no means be foreign to the present purpose to add, that I had a relation in this neighbourhood who made it a practice, for a time, whenever he could procure the eggs of a ring-dove, to place them under a pair of doves that were sitting in his own pigeon-house, hoping thereby to teach his own doves to beat out into the woods and support themselves by mast; the plan was plausible, but something always interrupted the success; for though the birds were usually hatched, and sometimes grew to half their size, yet none ever arrived at maturity. I myself have seen these foundlings in their nest displaying a strange ferocity of nature, so as scarcely to bear to be looked at, and snapping with their bills by way of menace. In short, they always died, perhaps for want of proper sustenance; but the owner thought that by their fierce and wild demeanour they frighted their foster-mothers, and so were starved.1 1 Food for the ring-dove. 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. 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 cornfed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, lettuce, endive, Virgil, as a familiar occurrence, by way of simile, describes a dove haunting the cavern of a rock, in such engaging numbers, that I cannot refrain from quoting the passage; and John Dryden has rendered it so happily in our language, that without further excuse, I shall add his translation also. "Qualis speluncâ subitò commota columba, "As when a dove her rocky hold forsakes, &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 crop WHITE. Observations on Birds. PHILLIP'S CYDER. PART II. IN A SERIES OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. DEAR SIR, LETTER I. Selborne, June 30, 1769. WHEN I was in town last month, I partly engaged that I would some time do myself the honour to write to you on the subject of natural history; and I am the more ready to fulfil my promise, because I see you are a gentleman of great candour, and one that will make allowances, especially where the writer professes to be an outdoor naturalist, one that takes his observations from the subject itself, and not from the writings of others. The following is a list of the Summer Birds of Passage which I have discovered in this neighbourhood, ranged somewhat in the order in which they appear: RAII NOMINA. Usually appears about Jynx, sive torquilla. {The middle of March, harsh note. Hirundo domestica. April 13. 9. Middle willow-{ Regulus non crista-{ Ditto: a sweet plaintive wren, 10. Whitethroat, 11. Redstart, 12. Stone-curlew, 13. Turtle-dove, 14. Grasshopperlark, 15. Swift, Turtur. note. Alauda minima lo- S Middle of April: a small custæ voce. Hirundo apus. sibilous note, till the end of July. About April 27. 16. Less reed-spar-{ Passer arundina-A sweet polyglot, but hur row, 17. Landrail,1 ceus minor. Ortygometra. rying it has the notes of many birds. A loud, harsh note,-crex, crex. Cantat voce stridula locustæ: 18. Largest willow- { Regulus non erista-end of April, on the tops 1 A man brought me a landrail, or daker-hen, a bird so rare in this district, that we seldom see more than one or two in a season, and those only in the autumn. This is deemed a bird of passage by all the writers: yet, from its formation, seems to be poorly qualified for migration; for its wings are short, and placed so forward, and out of the centre of gravity, that it flies in a very heavy and embarrassed manner, with its legs hanging down; and hardly to be sprung a second time, as it runs very fast, and seems to depend more on the swiftness of its feet than on its flying. Landrails used to abound formerly, I remember, in the low wet bean-fields of Christian Malford, in North Wilts, and in the meadows near Paradise Gardens at Oxford, where I have often heard them cry crex, crex.-WHITE: Observations on Birds. |