BRITISH BIRDS. I 25 



Food — seeds of weeds, acorns, beech-mast, chestnuts even 

 — for this bird has a most capacious swallow — and th& 

 succulent parts of vegetables, as well as snails and worms. 



The nest consists merely of a few sticks put together on 

 a flat bough at varying heights from the ground. The 

 eggs, roundish and white, are generally two, but sometimes 

 only one. There are usually three broods in the season. 

 The eggs are deserted for the slightest cause ; but the old 

 birds are not so ready to desert the young. There are very 

 few authentic instances of this bird pairing with the 

 domestic pigeon, with which no hybrids have, as yet, been 

 produced. 



TuRTLE-DovE. — Bill slender, and of a pale bluish shade ; 

 the eye is orange red, and a bare circle round the eye has a 

 pink tinge ; the legs and feet are carmine, with a purple 

 tint ; the forehead is whitish grey ; the head and upper 

 part of the neck light blue ; then onward to the tail the 

 blue is of a duller shade, and on each side of the neck is a 

 black spot, crossed by several narrow, crescentic, white 

 lines. Length, 11 inches. 



The female much resembles the male, but is duller in 

 appearance. 



The turtle-dove is migratory in Britain, arriving in April 

 or May, and departing in September to the beginning of 

 November. 



The nest is often placed among the young growth of a. 

 pollard, or where branches have been cut off at the side of 

 a tree and Nature has attempted to repair the injury by 

 pushing forth a number of shoots. It is also more com- 

 pactly put together than those of the other members of the 

 family, but is not a very pretentious structure for all that. 

 The turtle-doves will breed in confinement among them- 

 selves and with allied species, but Bechstein's statement- 

 that the mixed progeny will be fruitful when one of the 



