Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/400

372 have I remarked that when unkindly weather in spring arrested the growth of some of our white corn crops, allowing the hardy wild mustard to overtop the tender blade, how assiduously the pretty ringdove hastened the destruction of the weed by stripping its every leaf. And there, too, is the lowly chickweed (Stellaria media), so troublesome in some soils, for weeks its well-filled capsules furnish an abundant repast. Time will, I trust, enable me to add to this short catalogue of the benefits which it confers on rural labours. There are few woodland voices which delight me more,—few powers and graces of flight which I love better to see; but their countless numbers and frightful ravages steel the mind to their destruction.

The Pheasant. Viewed in all its bearings the introduction of the pheasant into Great Britain must be considered a great curse. How has its illegal destruction swelled our criminal list; and what a powerful, legalized instrument of oppression its maintenance becomes in the hands of an unfeeling landlord! So sensible are some of our kinder-hearted proprietors of its great ravages, that they pay the hire of a watchman, till the fields of winter wheat have outgrown its cupidity; an honest regard for the rights of others worthy of all praise and imitation. Fields of red clover are often irreparably injured, and many turnips spoiled, in the neighbourhood of the pheasant's winter retreats. Before the arrival of spring seed-time their numbers are well thinned, so that their ravages in newly-sprung fields of beans, oats and barley are not so noticeable: moreover, the insect world then attracts their attention. The old female often leads her brood into corn-fields, where they remain till harvest. Beans, w T hen sown in drills, as they usually are with us, seem to afford them a choice asylum: judging from the flocks of song-thrushes which affect such situations in autumn, insect food must be abundant. Personal observation does not enable me to say anything in praise of the pheasant, touching the destruction of injurious weeds: and I must conclude this short account by stating, that next to the ringdove, the pheasant is by far the most destructive of our native birds. Where extensive preserves exist, few of these birds would survive the rigours of winter unless regularly fed; and this very act places the conduct of their owners in a very equivocal light, and consequently their misdeeds are looked upon with an evil eye, when the grievance remains unredressed.

The Partridge is a brave little bird; and though chiefly supported on the produce of our fields, yet he scorns to partake of our bounte-