122 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



country in the winter, e.g. one was both heard and 

 seen in Norfolk on the 1st of January 1884 (Upcher, 

 Zool., 1884, p. 74); another was seen and heard 

 near Cambridge on Nov. 25, 1895 (J. L. Bonhote, 

 Field, Dec. 7, 1895). 



Known in many parts of the country as the 

 Cuckoo's-mate from its habit of appearing about 

 the same time as the Cuckoo. Its call, composed 

 of five dissyllabic notes, is not unlike that of the 

 Kestrel. 



Although usually selecting a hole in a tree for 

 nidification, the Wryneck has been known to occupy 

 a Sand-martin's burrow in the side of a sandpit in 

 Oxfordshire [Zool., 1885, p. 27), and another in a 

 brick-earth cutting in Kent {Zool., 1887, p. 299). 



Order IV. COLUMB^ 

 Fam. COLUMBID^. 



RING DOVE or WOOD PIGEON. Columba palumbus, 

 Linnaeus. PI. 18, fig. 6. Length, 17 in. ; wing, 10 in. ; 

 tarsus, 1 in. 



Resident and generally distributed, migrating to 

 the south at the approach of winter, when large 

 flocks arrive here from the Continent, particularly 

 in November. The home-bred birds, which begin 

 nesting early in April, and rear several successive 

 broods before September, quit their summer quarters 

 about the end of the latter month, and go south- 



