THE COMMON DOVES OF INDIA 127 

 and there knotted. The double portion was just broad 

 enough, being three inches apart, to support the nest 

 with careful balancing ; the knot acted as a sort of 

 buffer and prevented the twigs from sliding off, which 

 most assuredly would otherwise have been the case, for 

 the rope just there was at an angle of 45°." 



Those foolish birds were not permitted to bring up 

 their young, because the tent had to be struck before 

 the eggs were laid. 



In Lahore a favourite nesting site for the little 

 brown dove is on the top of the rolled-up portion of 

 the verandah chik. As the cJiik is composed of stout 

 material, the rolled-up portion forms an excellent plat- 

 form some four inches broad. But as the doves nest 

 just as the weather is beginning to grow warm, the 

 little home is apt to be somewhat rudely broken up. 

 One pair, however, has this year successfully reared up 

 two young hopefuls in a nest on this somewhat pre- 

 carious site. The doings of these form the subject of 

 the next article. 



I once came across a nest of this little dove in a 

 low, prickly bush beside a small canal distributory, three 

 miles outside Lahore. The dove appeared to have used 

 as the foundation for its nest an old one of the striated 

 bush babbler {Argya caudata). (I object to calling this 

 bird the common babbler, since, like common sense, it 

 is not very common.) In the same bush, at the same 

 level, that is to say, about a yard from the ground and 

 only a couple of feet from the dove's nest, was that of a 

 striated bush babbler containing three dark blue eggs. 

 This is a case upon which those who believe that eggs 



