WINTER Visrrons.
Into the English landscape that now passes rapidly from colour to form, from golden domes to filigree patterns, an immense horde of continental pigeons begin to enter. They may often be distinguished from our home birds by a certain lightness of plumage ; and we may trace in this species, as in the winter flocks of starlings, a severance of type which is not easily accounted for. Is it quite certainly the case that all these immigrants, both of starlings and pigeons, are true migrants, that is, that they all depart in the spring and once more leave the island to the native born ? Our own birds have been gorging incredibly on acorns, nuts and beech mast. You may find over a score of complete and unsullied nuts and acorns in a single crop. The foreigners, of course, share in this diet, but they are more notorious for their delight in English salads. I have known a bird to store in his crop as many Brussels sprouts as would fill a Pair-sized vegetable dish. It is this taste for clover and other greens (though they will eat buttercups, too) that arouses the wrath of the farmer.
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