The Natural History of Selborne

One of my neighbours, shot a ring-dove on an evening as it was returning from feed, & going to roost. When his wife had picked & drawn it, she found its craw stuffed with the most nice & tender tops of turnips. These she washed & boiled, & so sate down to a choice & delicate plated of greens, culled & provided in this extraordinary manner. Hence we may see that granivourous birds, when grain fails, can subsist on the leaves of vegetables. There is reason to suppose that they would not long be healthy without; for turkies, tho’ corn fed, delight in a variety of plants, such as cabbage, lettuce, endive, &c., & poultry pick much grass while gees live for months together on commons by grazing alone.

“Nought is useless made;…/
… On the barren heath/
The shepherd tends his flock, that daily crop/
Their verdant dinner from the mossy turf/
Sufficient: after them the cackling Goose/
Close-grazer, finds wherwith to ease her want.”
Philips’s Cyder