Subject: Re: Your message of Thu, 20 Apr 1995 06:29:25 -0700
Date: Apr 20 08:18:26 1995
From: Stuart MacKay - stuart.mackay at mccaw.com


Serge wrote:

> I'm afraid this message is not politicaly correct. That's
> probably because I am in France at the moment, with hunters
> getting ready to slaughter some sort of Doves _Streptopelia
> turtur_ (english name, Stuart, please) in the Medoc
> (south-west of France) by tens of thousands...


Turtle Dove.

Very similar to Mourning Doves over here - maybe a recent, common ancestor ?

It's a pretty gross activity. It seems kind of senseless. The BBC recently
(last May before I came over here) showed a film about hunting in the Medoc.
Lots of absurdly fat, old men, drinking wine and blasting everything in sight
- sorry, it was pretty sickening. I have often wondered/dreamt of going out
and "bagging a few" - the Turtle Dove Strikes Back !!! 8-O

The only good thing about it, is that there were very few young, ie less than
fifty, people involved. So hopefully it should die out in about 20 years or
so. I only hope that Turtle Doves can hold out that long.

Incidently this activity is banned under European law, but the French
authorities are not very keen on doing so. Same problem with the Spanish,
Portugese, Italian, Greek and German governments.

French birders are doing wonders. Buying up the hunting sites, monitoring the
migration, etc, etc. Lots of work gonig on buying hunting estates in the
Pyranees, particularly some of the high mountain passes which birds must fly
through to get down through Spain and into north Africa and beyond.

Stuart MacKay