DOVES 227 



denly falls away. Stone has been taken from this 

 place at some time to repair the walls about the 

 estate. This must have been long ago, for all trace 

 of the crude workings of a quarry has disappeared; 

 there is nothing now but a deep woodland hollow, 

 the scattered fragments of stone being covered with 

 moss and partly overgrown with brambles, whilst 

 in June the track, once rutted with the wheels 01 

 the stone-carts, has been turned by time into a 

 sloping glade, filled with ferns and bluebells. 

 Here, small oaks and alders, with an occasional 

 holly, grow freely, and to this lowly spot the Wood- 

 pigeons droop from the great trees around, and 

 form quite a little colonv of nests, none more than 

 twelve or fifteen feet from the ground. 



Leaving the path, one may creep through the 

 brushwood to the steepest side of the quarry, and 

 look down through the gaps in the leafage right 

 upon the nests. The platforms of dry sticks which 

 the pigeons erect vary very much ; when originally 

 made they are often so flimsy that they would 

 seem to be insufficient to support the sitting 

 bird; but, as in many cases they are repaired 

 season by season, they become in time fairly 

 solid structures. 



Carefully sheltered in the thicket, we may soon 

 hear the rustling wings of the great pigeon as she 

 glides through the branches, always approaching 

 from the same direction, and may see her standing 

 upon the nest-side, stretching out her neck as she 

 proceeds to feed her clamouring young. They, 

 with beating wings and querulous cries, thrust their 

 bare bills into the throat of the parent, her crop 



