THE IMPORTATION OF WOOD PIGEONS.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8781, 30 April 1894, Page 3

THE IMPORTATION OF WOOD PIGEONS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS. Sir, —In " Anglo-Colonial Notes " of your issue of Wednesday appears tiie following paragraph: — "Sir Westby Perceval is despatching, at the request of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society, some golden plover, English pheasants, wood pigeons, partridges, &c." Of these the pheasants may increase and multiply ; partridges have hitherto been a failure, and unless the hawks (really falcons) are kept down, and game better protected, will again be a failure ; the golden plover may (?) succeed on the hills of the Peninsula, but they are generally found where there is heather, of which New Zealand has none; the wood pigeons are sure to succeed. But why on earth introduce the peats ? For such any farmer in the Scotch Lothians will tell you they are. Whilst giving the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society credit for wishing to be of use, I am compelled to say, from stubborn facts, that they have done vast injury to the colony as a whole and to Canterbury in particular.' The facb is, they undertook a job they did not understand, witness the importation of sparrows, against which I warned them by letter in the public press some.twenty-two years ago; again, the importation of stoats and weasels, I wrote against this, and warned them what would occur. Recent paragraphs in the papers show I was once more right. I again write to warn them against acclimatising wood pigeons, as I know from experience what loss and damage they occasion to the farmer. Bewick, the great authority on British birds, thus speaks of the Wood Pigeon, Cuahet, or Queest, (Linn. Columba Paltmous): —"It is the largest of all the pigeon tribe ; the female lays two eggs and bas two broods in a year. They feed on acorn 8, wild fruits, and grain of all kind's; tbe flesh is very delicious when they have fed on the Triticum repens, conch grass or twitch, but acquires an unpleasant flavour when they have lived on turnips." Its powers of destruction may be estimated by the,wholesale levy it makes on the produce of the fields and woods, as thus enumerated by Professor MacGillivray, "Britiah Birds," vol. 1 p. 123. "It issues at sunrise to search the open fields for its food, which consists of seeds of the cultivated cereal grasses—wheat, barley, oats, as well as leguminous planta—beans and peas, and of field. mustard and charlock. In spring it feeds on the leaves of the turnip and picks the young blades of the red and white clovers. In summer they eat grass and other vegetable substancesj in autumn grain, acorns, and leguminous seeds." Stephens, in his "Book of the Farm," says:—"The wood pigeon destroys the growing crops in this manner, as described by an eye witness, the wood pigeon has a weak bill but strong wings. When the flock therefore settle on the lying portion of a wheat field instead of breaking off the heads and carry, ing them away they lay themselves down on their breashs on the ground, and using" their wings as flails they beat out tho pickle (grain) front the heads and then eat them. 'Ihe consequence is the grain being threshed upon a matting of straw a great proportion falls through to the ground, and the wood pigeon cannot eat one pickle for twenty which they thresh from the stalk. The pigeons descend first singly, then having left a watchman on the highest tree near the whole flock are coon at) work on the same spot, and the loss of grain to the farmer is very great. They are also gluttons in quantity." .In addition I know that they pick holes in the roots or bulbs of the turnips, thus causing them to rot and so become unfit for feed.

Surely this is strong evidence of. the des* .tractive mature and habits of the wood pigeon. The chief standby now of the Canterbury farmer is the frozen mutton trade, for which turnips are necessities. If in addition to drought, blight, turnip fly, and diamond-back moth, &c, we are to have wood pigeons, alas for the farmers. It is devoutly\to be hoped that every wood pigeon wul die on the voyage out, but if such is not the case then not one should be liberated, as if they are a few years will see them as great, if not a greater peat than the small birds are. If, therefore, the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society persist in acclimatising them, and the pigeons become, as I predict they will, an additional pest, they cannot say that they did' so in ignorance of what would occur.«=» Yours, &c, R. B. Willis. Sonthbridge.