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doves by the narrow black band that forms a collar round the 

 hind neck. 



All these species have similar habits. All are exceedingly 

 pugnacious, especially at the nesting season, which appears to 

 last all the year round. I do not think there is a month in the 

 year in which I have not come across a dove's nest containing 



A poet has apostrophised the dove : — 



"Crows have their time to build and larks 



For breeding and connubial love, 

 And other birds to lay and hatch — but thou, 



Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O dove!" 

 The Indian Tree Pie {Doidrocitta rufa), a relative of the 

 Common Magpie, seems to be the particular object of the hatred 

 of the dove. No sight is commoner in India than a pair of 

 screaming doves chasing a Tree Pie and making vicious pecks at 

 its back. 



The " sketchiness " of the nest built by the dove has always 

 proved a source of amusement to field naturalists. Eha describes 

 it as two short twigs laid across two long ones ; and it was, I 

 think, Phil Robinson who said that a tolerable imitation of the 

 nest can be made by upsetting a box of matches. Dozens of 

 times have I seen the two white eggs showing through the floor 

 of the nest. As a rule the nest is situated in a thorny tree within 

 seven feet of the ground. The Little Brown Dove, however, 

 frequently builds in verandahs on a ledge or in a creeper. One 

 pair of these laid in succession six clutches of eggs in the 

 verandah of my office at Lahore, The first nest was constructed 

 on the rolled-up end of the chik — a curtain made of pieces of 

 split bamboo tied together to act as a screen to keep the sun out 

 of the verandah. When the hot weather came the chik was let 

 down each day and this entailed the wreck of the nest ; but, 

 nothing daunted, the doves built a second nest which they 

 balanced on the top of the hanging chik! 



Mr. A. Anderson relates how a pair of Little Brown Doves 

 built a nest on the guy ropes of the tent in which he was camp- 

 ing. The rope was at an angle of 45 with the horizontal, but 

 thanks to the existence of a knot, the doves succeeded in 

 balancing their nest on the ropes. 



