336 THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



Other birds and squirrel dreys. Since its increase it has been 

 found in ruins and large ecclesiastical buildings, sharing the 

 crevices with the Daws. Two creamy-white eggs, measuring 

 about 1*5 by i'i5 inches, are laid practically at any time 

 between March and October. The down of the nestling is 

 yellowish, and its bill is at first dark, but later flesh-coloured. 

 A young bird, taken from the nest, took kindly to captivity, 

 and before it could walk would push itself across a table, 

 shuffling on its breast, to take food from my mouth. 



The upper parts of the mature bird are blue-grey, palest 

 on the rump. The wing is crossed by two interrupted black 

 bars, the quills are dark slate, and the tail shades from grey to 

 almost black at the tip. The breast is vinaceous, and on the 

 neck is a metallic green and purple patch, shining when the 

 bird swells its neck in display. The rest of the under parts are 

 pale blue-grey. The under wing is grey ; in the Rock-Dove it 

 is white. The bill is brownish yellow, red towards the base, 

 but the actual fleshy basal portion is white. The legs are pink 

 with a purple tinge ; the irides are variously described, but I 

 have found them dark brown. The young bird has at first 

 little lustre on the neck or sign of bars on the wing, but the 

 bird mentioned above, taken on May 25th, when down was 

 still present on head and breast, showed the patch and one bar 

 distinctly on October 12th. Length, 13-5 ins. Wing, 8"8 ins. 

 Tarsus, 11 ins. 



Ring-Do Ye. Coluviha palumhcs Linn. 



It is not proved that any of our resident Ring-Doves migrate, 

 but too well known that birds in the northern part of its Euro- 

 pean and Asiatic range travel south when food supplies are 

 precarious, for in autumn and winter great numbers arrive on 

 the east coast. As a resident the Wood-Pigeon or " Cushat " 

 breeds throughout the British Isles, in woodlands and even in 



