Abstract
THE British Trust for Ornithology is organizing a winter wood pigeon investigation in the British Isles which ought to shed much light upon the habits of this serious agricultural pest. Although organized from the natural history point of view, the investigation may well provide information of considerable value in the control of this pest. Explanatory forms and recording cards for field counts and roost positions have been circulated, and the inquiry will also include the examination of crop contents of shot birds and post-mortems upon diseased birds. The field counts will make observation upon the sizes of the local flocks at every opportunity when they perch, feed, roost or are in flight, and in addition to recording the day and place, the hour of the count will be noted. Record will also be made of their daily feeding, drinking and resting times, and the influence, if any, of fog, mist, rain and increasing daylight, and if special fields are favoured for feeding and resting. Observations will be made to see if the flocks remain intact throughout the day or break up, and if pairing takes place in flocks. The roost observations will count or estimate the number of birds using the roosts, the type of wood, the trees most favoured, the period in use, and whether it is used annually and if the size of the roosting flock is increasing or decreasing. An effort will also be made to get experienced people to weigh, measure and determine the sex of shot wood pigeons. The field counts will be returned to the Edward Grey Institute at Oxford monthly, and the rest of the winter stage of the investigation will be completed by the end of May.
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Wood Pigeon Investigation. Nature 149, 191 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149191a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149191a0