Pigeon Fodder It seems that the taste for cigarette ash,
reported of some Indian pigeons, is common to the tribe. A keeper of fantails and wrens in Durham is almost mobbed by his birds when he and others begin to smoke cigarettes in the gardens The pigeons will pay no attention to the vulgar ashes of a pipe but devour greedily all the cigarette ash. It is one of the drawbacks of keeping pigeons that they have a catholic taste. You never know what they will take to next. The wild birds particularly enjoy Brussels sprouts and young beech-leaves- such- is my experience. These Durham birds are innocent of crimes against the vegetable garden but in the spring have an affection for the pointed tips of daffodils and later in the year for viola leaves. Tastes in such matters are acquired rather than innate. My dog devours goose grass, practising a worthy virtue. My neighbour's grazes the aubretias, evincing a less virtuous taste. My bullfinches glory on the buds of forsythia, while my neighbour's much prefer plum and cherry shoots. In one field the woodpigeons eat buttercup seed by the peck, in another they consume bushels of clover. One never knows, but most of them are well worth their devastations.
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