20 AUGUST 1937, Page 18

The Pigeon's Harvest

Grain crops have a good many enemies, and this year in my experience the worst has been, not the sparrow, but the pigeon. They descended in hordes on some cornfields ; in spite of their greed they usually prefer one particular part of a field. One farmer shot over sixty in the afternoon and evening without moving from the neighbourhood of a particular tree at the edge of a field of wheat. These must presumably be home-bred birds, for the winter immigration has scarcely begun. It has been vast of recent years, and it may be (though evidence is altogether lacking) that some of the winter visitors have stayed to breed. Certainly the population of wood pigeons seems to be increasing, in spite of the great r umber of victims.