240 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



noticeable. But in spring-time they separate into pairs, or 

 may be seen flying about singly, especially on a windy day, 

 for he seems, like the peewit, to love a windy day. They, 

 too, are injurious to the farmer, dearly loving a freshly-set 

 bean-field or ripe corn, and more dearly oats ; indeed, in their 

 thieving propensities they much resemble the old ring-dove. 



But in nesting they choose the old rabbits' holes on the 

 sand-hills, where on a fine day in the summer you may at 

 times be startled to see a stock-dove walk out of a hole and 

 fly away in search of food for his young. But they do not 

 nest in the sand-holes so commonly as of yore. I think 

 they prefer the less frequented dunes ; and I remember 

 finding several nests by some wild dunes overhanging a 

 marsh yellow with ragwort growing in waste patches. 



In former days, when they bred more commonly in Nor- 

 folk, the gunners loved to lay wait for them on the marshes, 

 where they used to go in search of seeds for their young. And 

 later, when the harvest-moon is big in the sky, they flock 

 into the plantings of an evening with the old ring-doves, 

 whose company they continue in for the rest of the winter, 

 until the beautiful green-burnished patches on the marsh 

 shine in the spring rains, when they separate, as I have said. 

 They, too, are delicious for the table — far sweeter than 

 many a bird of greater repute. 



TURTLE-DoVE. 



When the marshes are growing green, recovering in the 

 genial April air from the scorching frosts of winter, you may 

 in your walks come upon a flock of turtle-doves feeding 

 leisurely in the bright sunshine — a shy flock, too, for as you 

 approach they fly up, their white-tipped tail-feathers glitter- 

 ing in the sun, and you remember at once the turtle-dove's 

 soft cooings, birds that have come to build, in June, their 

 little stick platforms in the budding thorn-trees, their favourite 

 nesting-places; or they choose the catkined sallows resounding 



