PIGEONS AND CROWS
The number of birds to an acre of ground varies from one season of the year to another. governed by migration, the amount of food available as the result of cultivation, and the availability of insects. It is easy to understand why one blackbird or pair of blackbirds con- tests with another, for the food sought is the same and two pairs to a territory that will only support one brood means a thin time for all. Not every encounter birds have with each other is entirely due to the operation of this law, for recently 1 watched woodpigeons be- ing driven off by crows. As far as I could tell the only offence being committed by the amorous pigeons was that they were using trees 1 have noticed are the favourite haunts of a pair of crows. The trees are in two groups some hundred yards apart. In one of the groups is a yew and it was into this that the pigeons fluttered. The crows saw them and came to drive them out, whereupon the pigeons flew to the second group of trees. The crows followed and continued to persecute the pigeons, driving them from one place to the other until the pigeons came to their senses and departed.
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