The Magpie. Although the magpie occasionally pilfers grain from our stacks in winter and spring, I have not seen him partake of such food when insects and their larvae, worms and mollusks, can be procured in sufficient abundance, and by their destruction he renders good service to the husbandman. For these kind offices, the liveliness of his manner, and beauty of his plumage, I wish the race were more numerous. It is, perhaps, owing to their comparative scarcity in this county, that I never hear any complaints from the hen- wife.
The Jay. To my great regret the beautiful jay has been exterminated from this immediate neighbourhood, but it is by no means uncommon in some of our denser woods and plantations. Fields of pease or ricks of the same, in hard weather, constitute the only inducement to leave its woodland shades, to live on the produce of man's labour. Its insectivorous propensities are well known.
The Starling breeds with us in sparing numbers: old buildings and hollow trees being alike scarce. About the autumnal equinox, the flocks which range our pastures appear to receive a considerable addition to their numbers. During snow-storms they forsake the interior for the sea-board fields. Having seen it mentioned that they feed in the Hebridean stack-yards, I have made diligent though fruitless enquiry to ascertain whether they ever do so in this country. It is one of those pre-eminently useful birds which ought to meet with the greatest encouragement. Some years ago a flock which haunted our fields roosted for two successive nights in a holly hedge in the garden.
The Ringdove. To trace the gradual dispersion and colonizing propensities of some birds, is a subject well worthy the attention of field naturalists resident in Scotland, where extensive draining and planting have produced great amelioration in the climate, and variety in the productions of our fields. The ringdove or wood-pigeon was extremely rare in East Lothian about the end of last century, where it now swarms to a most injurious extent. In the appendix to the third volume of Professor Macgillivray's 'British Birds' (p. 700), will be found the reasons which I thought had led to this astonishing increase:[1] more extended observations and enquiries in other counties where similar improvements are being carried on, have since confirm
- ↑ 1. The great increase in the cultivation of clover and turnips, which afford them a constant supply of food during winter. 2. The great increase of fir-woods, which are their delight, both for roosting and rearing their young.
